Lando Norris admits that a full-on clash with teammate Oscar Piastri as they battle for the title is inevitable.

Of course, possibly more than any other team, McLaren has a history of 'friction' between its drivers, and while one always tends to think Prost/Senna, let's not forget Alonso/Hamilton.

With his feet now well and truly under the table, Piastri is quietly stamping his authority on the 2025 title, having claimed five victories from the nine races thus far, three of them in succession.

To its credit, the Woking outfit has given its drivers the all-clear to fight, and as the championship intensifies it is inevitable that there will be clashes.

"We never said we're going to avoid everything," Norris told reporters in Montreal. "I think we've actually been quite open in saying at some point, something is probably going to happen.

"We just have to be ready for that," he admitted. "I think both Oscar and myself know that, we're competitive, we want to beat each other but the main thing is we stay strong together as a team.

"Everything is in the open," he insisted, "everything is obvious, everything is known between us. We both want to win, we both want to beat each other, but at the end of the day there can only be one person and that will be whoever performs best over the course of the year.

"He's in his third season of F1," he said of his teammate. "I remember in my third season you just come into the year a little bit more confident and with a bit more knowledge and just a more complete driver. That's what he's done and he's performing well, he's driving incredibly well and at a very high level and deserves everything he's been doing at the minute. It's a good fun rivalry between us."

As one would expect, Piastri takes a more level-headed approach, looking beyond this year's title fight.

"Clearly there's competition and there's a 'want to beat each other on track' mentality," he said, "but as we've said before, we don't want just one opportunity to try and win a world championship each. We want this to be the case for many years to come and the best way to protect that is by having a very strong team around both of us.

"We're aware that whatever happens in the championship this year, or how things go, is much bigger than just this season and potentially defines our whole career. We're very aware of that fact, of course we still want to beat each other and win a world championship but we know that there's a bigger picture as well."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 19/06/2025 14:41

"@Ricardo_Sanchez... You make some interesting observations there and whilst I generally agree with you I do see it from a different perspective. Norris has successfully cultivated an aura of 'struggle' with some of the basic elements of competitive sport by way of seeding comments on his results with,at times, what appears to be a degree of self doubt. Followers and fans have pounced on this by way of sympathetic conspicuous compassion plus when he gets a good result it appears to be a greater triumph against the 'demons' that plot his downfall? Piastri by way of contrast exhibits the extreme opposite, never letting the fan and follower into his head. I see that as a strength in both the short and long term. To Norris his greatest competitor is on the other side of the garage and if he is not aware of what goes on in Piastri's head he's behind [metaphorically] before the lights go out.

I was quite happy to see Norris fail in Canada as that has reset the points table after Piastri walked away from Melbourne with a 23 point deficit, skewing the seasons WDC figures which didn't reflect the actual racing results. To all intents and purposes we now see, more or less, a truer comparison. Of course either driver can still win. The question is who? As Piastri says, 'early days' we are still not even half way and one DNF can throw the whole championship wide open. "

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2. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 14/06/2025 20:09

"These two are obviously very different personalities, but on this occasion, looking at the actual quotes, Norris comes across as perfectly calm and realistic. He’s simply acknowledging that things might get tense in the McLaren team battle. That’s honest, not over-emotional, for a change.

Piastri, meanwhile, speaks in more abstract terms, focusing on the longer-term picture and reputational impact. It’s a thoughtful response, but arguably also a way of stepping back from the intensity of this year’s title fight. Perhaps there’s even an implicit nod that 2025 may not swing his way.

Both approaches are equally mature, just framed differently. So it’s hard to see why Norris is being painted as the less level-headed one. If anything, his comments are grounded in the present, while Piastri is already looking a few seasons ahead.

They’re both being rational but with their heads tilted in slightly different directions."

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3. Posted by Wokingchap, 13/06/2025 14:19

"Hope they can keep it clean and thrash everyone.........definitely capable."

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"Something is probably going to happen," admits Norris

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