McLaren have been the clear team to beat in the 2025 Formula 1 season, but Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have not dominated in practice at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Woking outfit sit comfortably clear at the top of the F1 constructors’ championship with 362 points from the first nine rounds. Piastri and Norris also lead the drivers’ standings, with their 186 and 176 points eclipsing the 137 points that Max Verstappen has secured for third.
Yet Verstappen set the pace in FP1 for the Canadian GP on Friday, while Norris could only set the seventh-fastest lap time with his 1:13.651 effort 0.458 seconds slower than the Red Bull racer’s time. Piastri was also only P10 in the FP1 timesheet with his best lap only a 1:14.198.
Norris and Piastri improved their rankings in FP2, but the McLaren pilots still trailed the best lap in the session set by Mercedes driver George Russell with a 1:12.123. Norris finished the session in second place with a 0.028s deficit and Piastri ended the hour 0.439s away in P6.
Ted Kravitz found McLaren’s front wing upgrade test claim at the Canadian GP ‘weird’
McLaren also utilised the first practice session for the 2025 Canadian GP to run an upgraded front wing and a revised front suspension geometry. The Woking outfit made a minor tweak to their front suspension geometry to help their stars extract the MCL39’s single-lap speed.
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| Position | Drivers’ Championship | Points |
| 1 |
Oscar Piastri |
186 |
| 2 |
Lando Norris |
176 |
| 3 |
Max Verstappen |
137 |
| 4 |
George Russell |
111 |
| 5 |
Charles Leclerc |
94 |
| 6 |
Lewis Hamilton |
71 |
| 7 |
Andrea Kimi Antonelli |
48 |
Yet McLaren removed the upgraded front wing before FP2, and Ted Kravitz found the team’s suggestion that they never intended for Norris or Piastri to race the new design in Sunday’s Canadian GP ‘weird’. Instead, the papaya squad argued it was only a test for a future round.
Kravitz said on Sky Sports F1 (13/06, 22:30): “So, I told you at the beginning of the session they have taken the new front wing off. Confirmation from McLaren that the front wing was a test item.
“It was used by both cars, but for testing purposes apparently and not for race introduction. OK, fine, weird… It’s not unusual for them to test new bits on new front wings for future races, we’ve seen McLaren do that before.
“But for McLaren to declare them on the FIA’s new parts list, it’s weird. It merits a bit more investigation. Were they never going to run that new front wing? Was it always a test item?”
Red Bull did not believe McLaren’s trial excuse for their floor upgrade in Saudi Arabia
Kravitz is not the first person to find McLaren’s suggestion that they trialled an upgrade they did not plan to race ‘weird’. Red Bull did not believe McLaren in Saudi Arabia only tested the floor upgrade that the Woking crew first fitted on Piastri’s car in FP1 and then Norris’ in FP2.
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The floor McLaren used in Jeddah was never to be seen again after Piastri finished FP1 in P4 and 0.102s slower than Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. Norris set the pace in FP2 for the Saudi Arabian GP with the floor upgrade McLaren claimed was only a trial, like their front wing in Canada.
McLaren also only recently introduced a new front wing at Imola, as the papaya crew opted to use their upgraded design at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix rather than wait for the FIA’s new flexible front wing rules to then come into force at the Spanish Grand Prix last time out.
