Oscar Piastri predicts championship nail-biter with Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri believes the battle for this year’s Drivers’ Championship will go all the way to the wire between himself and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.

The pair have dominated the season so far, with Piastri leading the standings at the midway point from Norris.

Oscar Piastri expects tense title battle ‘for the rest of the year’

Between Piastri and Norris, McLaren has won nine of the 12 races thus far, five of those going the way of the Australian.

His championship advantage stretched to 22 points following the Canadian Grand Prix, but two wins on the bounce since then for Norris has seen that close to just eight points.

“It’s a very tight battle, and I think it will be for the rest of the year,” Piastri observed of the intra-team battle.

While it doesn’t hold an especially significant car advantage, the McLaren MCL39 has proven itself to be a strong all-around machine.

That consistency has seen a papaya-clad driver on the podium after all but one race thus far in 2025; Canada the exception, where Piastri was fourth and Norris crashed out after making contact with the rear wheel of his colleague.

Rivals, meanwhile, have struggled for consistent pace, while the closeness of Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull to one another has seen them steal points away from each other and allow McLaren to march clear.

With a 238-point advantage over Ferrari, the Constructors’ Championship is already almost a forgone conclusion.

The same, however, cannot be said of the Drivers’ fight, though that has increasingly narrowed to essentially become an all-McLaren battle for a maiden title.

“I think Canada was summed up well; I don’t think it was the best Sunday for me, definitely in terms of pace, but I think [Austria] was probably one of the better ones,” Piastri said of his recent performances.

“I was happy with my pace, especially on Sunday, but I expect it to ebb and flow.

“The weekends where either of us put our absolute best forward, it’s probably enough, either of us, to win. It’s just doing that, and finding 100 per cent of your potential instead of 99 or 99.5 is very difficult.

“That’s been the difference so far, probably this year; we’re very, very evenly matched and, on our good days, either of us are very hard to beat.”

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McLaren insists both drivers will be given equal opportunity to fight for the title. Team boss Zak Brown has told PlanetF1.com that he’s even willing to sacrifice the Drivers’ title rather than pull either Piastri or Norris into service for the other.

“When you’ve got two drivers first and second in the championship and are separated by less than one second-place finish, how do you possibly even consider standing one down into a supporting role? There’s just no way we will,” he said.

It’s a point that was demonstrated on track at the British Grand Prix, after Piastri was penalised for erratic driving behind the Safety Car. The resultant 10-second penalty, served at his final stop, handed the race lead to Norris.

In the car, Piastri called for the team to reverse the order, arguing that the penalty was unjust and, if the team did too, that it should swap the cars and allow them to race to the flag.

“As part of the way we go racing together as a team, with Lando and Oscar, we always tell our drivers, don’t keep things in the back of your mind when you drive,” said team principal Andrea Stella.

“If you have a point, if you have a suggestion, if you want let us know what you’re thinking, just say it, and then we will evaluate other people. We will make a decision. We will come back to you.

“What Oscar did is exactly what we incentivise our drivers to do. He communicated, he expressed his opinion, which we evaluated.”

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