McLaren’s title fight is the one happening in-house — and Woking knows it
The latest round of armchair adjudication kicked off the moment McLaren told Oscar Piastri to swap back behind Lando Norris at Monza. Cue theories, accusations, and a whole lot of heat: is McLaren quietly backing Norris for the big one?
Short answer: that’s not what this looks like from the inside.
What happened in Italy was messy but not mysterious. Norris had a slow stop, Piastri jumped him on the road, and the team then restored the pre-pit order, saying the initial strategy call — pitting Oscar first to cover a Ferrari and keep a safety car window open — wasn’t designed to flip their cars. Andrea Stella, who’s spent the season preaching “principles” almost as often as he’s winning trophies, called it a consistency play: protect the team interest, don’t distort an intra-team fight because of a botched wheel gun, then let the boys race.
That’s been the line all year. And it tracks with McLaren’s primary mission in 2025: nail the Constructors’ Championship. That’s where the big money is, and where the team’s collective effort is measured. With the points avalanche they’ve put together, McLaren could even seal the title as early as Baku — with seven races to spare. Once that’s done, the conversation naturally shifts. How hands-off can they be with two drivers chasing their first Drivers’ crown?
There’s a playbook for this, and it lives in Brackley. Toto Wolff’s seen three versions of an intra-team title brawl up close, and he didn’t sugarcoat how hard it was with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Two “lions,” as he once put it, ripping into each other, often too close for comfort. Wolff’s read on McLaren now? Different vibe. More corporate, less combustible. And if your Constructors’ title is essentially in the bag, you let them race — until they touch. Then you step in.
That’s the crux for McLaren. There’s almost no upside to picking a favorite while both Norris and Piastri are in realistic contention. Neither driver needs public backing to be quick; both are under long-term deals; and the garage is functioning too well to invite the sort of fracture that turns a dominant season into a soap opera.
There is, however, one scenario where the calculation changes: an external threat starts gathering steam. If a Max Verstappen-style charge drags the fight into a three-way in the closing rounds, the team might feel compelled to stack the deck to make absolutely sure both titles go to Woking. History has already left a scar there. In 2007, with two McLarens slugging it out, Kimi Räikkönen stayed close enough to pounce at the last possible moment. Different era, different circumstances, same lesson: keep the barn doors shut.
Right now, though, there’s no panic. The Norris–Piastri dynamic has been competitive, occasionally spiky, but not destructive. Monza’s radio back-and-forth referenced Hungary 2024 — a timely reminder that sometimes you swap once so you don’t have to swap a dozen times later — and the drivers got on with it. You can argue the optics; you can’t argue the outcome.
If McLaren do their part in Baku and the Constructors’ is wrapped early, expect a lighter touch across the final run-in. No coded team orders, no needless choreography. Just a hard, clean shootout with a single non-negotiable: don’t hit your teammate. Most title-winning teams eventually land on the same rulebook because it’s the only one that makes sense.
And that’s the point too often lost in the noise. Norris and Piastri aren’t passengers in this. They helped build the current ethos, and they know the stakes as well as anyone on the pit wall. They want to beat each other straight up — and they want to do it in a car that stays the class of the field through Abu Dhabi.
Pick a favorite now? That’s how you start solving a problem McLaren don’t yet have. The smarter move is the one Stella keeps repeating: stick to the principles, keep the garage calm, and let talent do the rest. If the title’s truly between papaya cars, the fairest answer is the fastest one on Sunday.
