Piastri or Norris?

As we dive into the 2025 season, there is one question that is beginning to play on everyone’s minds, Piastri or Norris for world champion? 

Image Credit to: Mclaren's official Instagram

We are only a few races into the season, but as of Bahrain, McLaren are 58 points ahead of their closest rivals, Mercedes, in the constructors' standings. In terms of driver standings, Lando Norris sits in 1st with 77 points, with his Aussie teammate, Oscar Piastri close behind with 74 points. 

NUMBER ONE DRIVER?

McLaren has stated countless times in the past that they don’t have a “number one driver”. This means they won’t prioritise one driver over the other, which may cause problems for them in the future with how close the standings are between both drivers currently. Their decision has already impacted them in the past, for example, at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2024, Oscar Piastri had been leading the race until McLaren made the decision to pit Lando Norris before Piastri, allowing Norris to undercut his teammate. The team then demanded Norris give the position back to Piastri, in which the driver showed his opinion on this demand by waiting before he later gave the lead back. 

LAST SEASON

If you look at last season’s results, Lando Norris looks like the better contender for the championship this year since he came 2nd and Oscar Piastri came 4th but many things have changed over the winter break not just with McLaren but also the other teams, so last seasons results most likely don’t reflect how this year is going to go. McLaren were definitely the fastest car on track last season, and they won the constructors' championship after the battle with Ferrari went until the last race, but this year they look even faster. With a better car, could Piastri finish higher than 4th? It definitely seems so. 

QUALIFYING 

One thing that has noticeably changed from last season is Piastri’s qualifying performance. Last year, he didn’t finish on pole once while Lando Norris secured 8 pole positions across the year. In Australia 2025, Lando Norris was on pole, once again, with Piastri very close behind. But for the 2nd race in China, Oscar Piastri was on pole for the 1st time in his Formula 1 career. Piastri later secured his 2nd pole position in Bahrain, where Norris qualified in 6th. One of Norris’s biggest strengths in the past has been qualifying, so what does Piastri’s sudden improvement in qualifying mean for this season? Piastri has already out-qualified Norris three times in 2025 if you include the sprint race in China, so who’s to say Piastri won’t continue this all throughout 2025? 

EXPERIENCE IN THE CAR 

Lando Norris has been a Formula 1 driver since 2019, which means he is in his 7th season. The entirety of this time, he has raced with McLaren. Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, became an F1 driver in 2023, meaning 2025 is his 3rd season in the sport. Similarly to Norris, he has also been with McLaren for all of these three seasons. Both drivers have been through rough times and good times with McLaren. Team Principal of McLaren, Andrea Stella,  recently talked about Lando Norris being the driver who brought the team to where they are currently. Lando Norris definitely has more experience in an F1 car, specifically the McLaren, having an extra 4 years of racing time than Piastri, but you truly can’t count Oscar out just based on experience. Oscar Piastri is a highly skilled driver. In 2019, he became the Formula Renault Eurocup Champion, then in 2020 he was FIA Formula 3 Champion, and then later became FIA Formula 2 Champion in 2021. And whenever you mention Oscar Piastri, you also have to mention Qatar 2023, where he came 2nd from starting sixth on the grid and a sprint win. He has definitely proven himself to be an outstanding driver, even without the experience that his teammate has. 

TEAM DYNAMICS AT MCLAREN

McLaren as a team have a long history, they joined Formula 1 in 1966 and have won the constructors' championship 9 times in those 59 years. The team has had notable drivers like Aryron Senna, Niki Lauda and Lewis Hamilton. The current-day McLaren team is very different to the McLaren team that Senna was a part of, though. McLaren has Zak Brown as CEO and Andrea Stella as Team Principal. It has been speculated by fans that it looks like Zak Brown prefers Lando Norris, and Andrea Stella prefers Oscar Piastri which does line up with their personalities, Brown being more  similar to Norris and Stella being more similar to Piastri. The dynamic at McLaren, specifically between the two drivers, has seemed questionable at times, especially in the midst of “papaya rules”, but the relationship between the teammates hasn’t appeared to change during these periods. They seem to have a stable friendship, appearing to be closer after the winter break. It is most likely that McLaren has prepared their drivers on how close the championship might be between them. This is definitely needed since McLaren doesn’t need a repeat of 2016 Mercedes on their hands.

THE QUESTION STILL STANDS, PIASTRI OR NORRIS? 

This really is the question to ask yourself before every race. Yes, Max Verstappen comes into the picture sometimes. Yes, George Russell does as well, but ultimately it’s Piastri or Norris. Based on the start of the season, Oscar Piastri seems to be the better contender, even though Lando Norris is currently leading the championship. Oscar Piastri has won two out of the four races so far this year, while Lando Norris has only won once. Piastri did have a complication in Australia that resulted in him getting a 9th place finish and Norris has outperformed Piastri twice so far but the extra win that Oscar has over Lando has just tipped him over the edge of more likely to be the champion this year in a lot of Formula 1 fan’s opinions. Really though, it is too close and too early in the season at the moment to really assess what this season is going to end up looking like. Either driver could take the win, and that’s what is making this season so much more exciting.

Written by

Darcey Stuart