McLaren will be full of confidence heading into the 2025 Formula 1 season but wary that they can’t afford the same slow start that hampered them at the beginning of last year.
The current Constructors’ Champions had the fourth-fastest car when they arrived in Bahrain at the beginning of 2024.
However, unlike all of their competitors, McLaren delivered the most efficient set of update packages throughout the year, catapulting them to the front of the pack.
Lando Norris won his maiden Grand Prix in Miami and Oscar Piastri followed that up with his first non-Sprint Race victory at the Hungaroring.
Norris was ultimately the driver McLaren backed to try and chase down Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.
It meant McLaren introduced their papaya rules to try and reduce the impact on Piastri’s race as much as possible while still supporting his teammate.
They didn’t quite work as expected, with Piastri leapfrogging Norris at Monza, but both drivers then losing out to Charles Leclerc.
If McLaren do end up being the favourites to win both championships in 2025, then they suddenly face a tricky dilemma.
Both drivers will fancy their chances to win the title, but McLaren won’t want their infighting to cost the team any points in their own championship.
Why Oscar Piastri might look outside of McLaren after the 2025 Formula 1 season
Journalists Ben Anderson and Jon Noble were discussing McLaren’s 2025 prospects on The Race F1 YouTube channel and whether they could face some difficult strategy calls between their two drivers should they regularly be challenging each other during races.
Anderson said: “I think also probably, they will need Piastri to take a step to even create that scenario because after around Monza, Baku time last year.
“I was thinking, well if McLaren’s in the title fight, the drivers are in the title fight from the start, Piastri’s looking the more likely, he’s the one who looks like he’s got the killer instinct in battle.
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“But then, Verstappen won the championship, the pressure came off Norris and he took a step it seems and Piastri looked like he was half a step behind Norris to the end of the year.
“But of course, if Piastri can take that next step, then it becomes tense again and I wonder…he seemed like he swallowed the papaya rules thing but wasn’t particularly happy about it.
“I feel like potentially, if they start tripping over each other, he could be looking elsewhere for other drives, maybe Norris does too. So how does McLaren handle that situation?”
McLaren rivals have already declared their interest in Oscar Piastri
Piastri won’t be in any rush to leave McLaren, particularly if their car is as fast as it was last season.
However, he’s not signed for Andrea Stella’s team to be Norris’ number two and if he finds himself playing second fiddle to the Brit once again, he may explore his options.
The grid is unlikely to change too much heading into 2026 with many of the changes to the grid that happened last year involving drivers who ended up signing multi-year deals.
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Piastri is one of the most exciting young drivers in Formula 1 and if his manager Mark Webber was suddenly looking for an alternative seat for him, he wouldn’t be short of offers.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has admitted he would love to sign Piastri and given Verstappen’s future always has a small question mark surrounding it and Liam Lawson is unproven at the highest level, he could end up being the solution to their long-term driver problems.
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