Zak Brown now tells Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris when McLaren could pick who benefits from team orders

McLaren are running away in both 2025 Formula 1 championships after Oscar Piastri won the Miami Grand Prix to further enhance his lead over teammate Lando Norris.

The Australian now boasts a 16-point advantage over the Briton after scoring his fourth win of the season so far after only the opening six rounds. Piastri is even 32 points clear of four-time defending champion Max Verstappen atop the drivers’ standings with 131 to his name.

Only the McLaren duo have so far hit triple-figures in the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship, as well, with Norris on 115 to Verstappen’s 99. Their efforts even combine to put McLaren 105 points above Mercedes and 141 to Red Bull in the constructors’ standings with 246 already.

McLaren will enforce team orders when Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris cannot win the 2025 F1 title

Red Bull are banking on the FIA’s flexi-wing clampdown hurting McLaren, with new tests set to come into force at the Spanish Grand Prix in round nine of 24. Additionally, Red Bull keep pushing the FIA to investigate McLaren after they used thermal imaging on their rear brakes.

The FIA has so far found nothing untoward when it has looked into McLaren’s car. So, Piastri and Norris may yet battle to lift their first F1 title in a straight fight if the MCL39 remains the class of the field after the new flexible front wing tests at the Spanish GP on May 30-June 1.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has even now confirmed that the Woking outfit will also only make Piastri or Norris the team’s No1 driver once the other has been mathematically ruled out of the title race. Until then, McLaren will not use team orders that favour either of their drivers.

“There’s total respect between them,” Brown told the Daily Mail. “At some stage, they might tangle. You would expect that if they were racing each other hard side-by-side for 24 races. But I am not worried about it.

“We won’t have team orders or a No1 driver unless, say, with five races to go one of them is mathematically out of the game. I don’t think that will happen. I’d hope they will instead be fighting for the title between themselves to the end. It’s up to them to decide who wins it.”

Oscar Piastri would win the 2025 F1 title at the Las Vegas Grand Prix based on the first six rounds

Brown’s belief that Piastri and Norris will fight for the 2025 Formula 1 title through until the chequered flag falls at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 7 would make the McLaren duo the first F1 drivers to fight a championship battle until the end since 2021.

F1 has not seen its championship go down to the wire since Verstappen’s controversial first title victory over Lewis Hamilton in 2021. Formula 1 has also not seen any drivers’ title battle last until the final race between two teammates since Nico Rosberg beat Hamilton in 2016.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

Verstappen sealed the 2022 title with three rounds to spare, the 2023 title with five rounds to spare and beat Norris to the 2024 title with two rounds to spare. Based on their current points tallies, Piastri would also beat Norris to win the 2025 title with two rounds to spare.

With Piastri’s Miami GP win taking him 16 points clear of Norris at the one-quarter stage of the 2025 season, he would get the title and McLaren’s first since Hamilton’s maiden victory in 2008 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix like Verstappen last term based on their current points.