If you assumed that Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris would have a stage-managed tussle for the 2025 Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship in their dominant McLarens, you’d be wrong. After winning Sunday’s United States Grand Prix, Max Verstappen is now only 40 points behind Piastri, the championship leader. That gap was 104 points just four races ago. If the 28-year-old Dutch driver were to retain the title, it would be the largest points deficit overcome en route to the championship.
A McLaren driver hasn’t won a race since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August. Since his home race, Verstappen has won three of the last four rounds, as well as Saturday’s sprint race at the Circuit of the Americas. While the defending four-time champion can credit an upgrade package for his Red Bull’s uptick in performance, McLaren’s race-day execution has been far from pristine. The latest intra-team flashpoint happened during the Austin sprint. Piastri sparked a double McLaren DNF, colliding with Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg while attempting an aggressive Turn 1 switchback pass on Norris. After Sunday’s race, Piastri told Autosport:
“I’d still rather be where I am than the other two. Obviously, this weekend has not been what I wanted or what I expected. This weekend has been quite different to the previous couple: Baku was obviously a bit of a disaster for very different reasons and Singapore was what it was. So I think this weekend has been kind of the odd one out compared to others.”
Papaya Rules for thee, but not for me
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has attempted to keep the peace in the camp by imposing Papaya Rules, general guidelines that Piastri and Norris can race each other as long as they don’t collide. However, the maligned guidelines have stretched to include that the team will treat the drivers equally. If one is ordered to give something up for their teammate’s race, they expect something in return later on.
Despite Papaya Rules, the McLaren teammates have come to blows on track multiple times. Norris collided with Piastri while trying to pass him and crashed out of the Canadian Grand Prix in June. Earlier this month, Norris banged wheels with Piastri to pass him during the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix. The team said there would be repercussions for Norris’s action, but Brown clarified in an F1 TV interview that it wouldn’t be anything fans would see on track. The interview was on the grid in Austin, just minutes before the team’s Turn 1 double DNF.
Title fights between teammates are rarely ever civil affairs and typically provoke career-long rivalries. Whether it be Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at McLaren, or Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber at Red Bull or Hamitlon and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, tempers always flare when the sport’s ultimate prize is on the line. If McLaren don’t get its house in order fast, Verstappen could end the year as a five-time champion against all odds.
