Oscar Piastri believes that Max Verstappen’s presence in the title fight could eventually lead McLaren to do away with their ‘two number-one drivers’ policy. Currently, the championship leader and team-mate Lando Norris are experiencing equal treatment from the team’s management. Heading into the Canadian Grand Prix next weekend, Piastri leads Norris by 10 points, with Verstappen 49 points behind the Australian following a disastrous end to the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Dutchman finished fourth on the tarmac but dropped to 10th following a 10-second time penalty for contact with George Russell. With five wins to Norris’ two, Piastri is in the driving seat after nine rounds of the 2025 campaign, but the 24-year-old is not ruling Verstappen out of contention. In fact, he believes that the Red Bull driver could influence the flow of the intra-team fight at McLaren.
“[We] both want to be world champion,” Piastri told Viaplay at the Spanish Grand Prix. “When you’ve got two quick drivers that can fight for that on merit, then you should let it happen.
“I think if one of us jumps ahead of the other and, say, Max – or if someone else, but probably Max – is still in the fight, then yes, maybe at some point there needs to be a conversation. But I think we’re very far away from that point at the moment.”
Piastri was on the other side of this treatment in 2024. After Norris claimed his maiden Grand Prix victory in Miami last year, the pendulum swung away from Verstappen in the title fight, leaving the Brit with an opportunity to chip away at the sizeable advantage the Red Bull star had accrued during the early stages of the campaign.
Initially, McLaren refrained from imposing team orders, and Piastri was allowed to keep hold of his first race win in Hungary later in the year. However, the Australian was eventually relegated to a support role, with the promise of equal footing when the slate was wiped clean after Abu Dhabi.
According to Helmut Marko, Norris can breathe easy, though. “At the moment, no,” he told ServusTV in Barcelona, when asked about Verstappen’s title chances. “I have to admit that, honestly. He absolutely has to drive every lap at the limit now; that’s the only way. You can also see how Yuki Tsunoda is struggling now, how all his team-mates have been struggling.
“Only he can deal with this car. Our car now has a slightly wider working window. If everything is right, we will be as fast as McLaren. For us, that’s only once every three or four races. McLaren is just always there. That means that if we don’t fix these problems, the gap will only get bigger.”
