McLaren Would Rather Lose Like 2007 Than Crown Norris or Piastri Early
1. Déjà-vu in Woking: “We’re comfortable with how we go racing”
Twenty-four hours after the Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown faced the media and dropped a bombshell that instantly ricocheted around every F1 newsroom:
“We recognise the consequences of that could be 2007. You got two drivers that tie and lose to Kimi by a point … but the downside of favouring one or the other is one then wants to leave, which is exactly what happened at the end of ’07 anyway”.
Translation: McLaren prefers to risk squandering a near-certain drivers’ crown—just as it did in 2007 when Alonso and Hamilton took points off each other and gifted the title to Raikkonen—rather than anoint either Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri before the chequered flag of the Abu Dhabi finale.
2. The Numbers That Prove the Danger Is Real
With ten rounds still to run, McLaren has won 11 of 14 races and leads the constructors’ table by more than double Ferrari’s tally. Yet the gap between Norris and Piastri is only nine points. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, 62 points adrift, mathematically needs both papaya cars to keep splitting victories—and the team is openly willing to let that happen.
3. Hungary Flashpoint: Strategy Split Fuels the Fire
Budapest provided the clearest example of McLaren’s laissez-faire philosophy. Norris started fifth, rolled the dice on a one-stop, and leap-frogged Piastri, who was shackled behind Charles Leclerc’s two-stopping Ferrari. Piastri’s side of the garage had asked to cover Norris but was told to “race Leclerc first”. Post-race, Andrea Stella admitted the decision was deliberate:
“When we have a deviating strategy … this is part of racing. We want to give our two drivers the possibility to utilise, express their talent”.
4. 2007 Parallels: Same Team, Same Dilemma, Different Decade
In 2007 McLaren arrived at the final race with two drivers level on points; Alonso left, Hamilton lost the title by one point, and Spygate erupted. Brown insists the structural damage of choosing sides is worse than repeating history:
“You put the constructors’ championship at risk, right? You see other teams favour one … detrimental to the constructors’”.
5. No Contractual Clauses, No Hierarchy
Both drivers confirmed there is no preferential clause in their 2025 contracts. Stella reiterated:
“There’s nothing that gives one priority over the other, nor have they ever asked for that”.
Even engine-component rotation is balanced: fresh power units are alternated between cars to ensure neither Norris nor Piastri takes an untimely grid penalty alone.
6. Driver Reaction: Praise in Public, Pressure in Private
Norris calls identical strategies “daft” and welcomes the freedom; Piastri admits Budapest stung but still backs split calls. Yet Jolyon Palmer notes Piastri’s body language on team radio:
“You could tell he was spooked … he knew he’d have to pass Norris on track and that was practically impossible”.
7. What McLaren Gains – and Gambles – by Staying Neutral
Upside: harmonious garage, marketing buzz of a genuine intra-team title fight, deterrent against either driver shopping for a new seat.
Downside: risk of race-day collisions, strategic muddles, and the nightmare scenario where Verstappen snatches a third straight crown while Norris and Piastri take points off each other until the final lap of Yas Marina.
8. The Bottom Line – A Philosophy Carved in Papaya Stone
McLaren’s hierarchy believes favouritism is a team-killer; losing championships is merely painful. Until mathematically forced to intervene, the pit wall will keep handing both drivers the strategy sheet and the keys to their own destiny—even if history repeats itself and the trophy ends up in someone else’s hands.
Sources
- ESPN – Inside McLaren’s recent history of team orders and close calls, 2025-09-08
- Motorsport.com – Norris and Piastri to keep McLaren F1 race strategy ‘open’, 2025-08-29
- F1 Oversteer – McLaren’s clever engine ‘strategy’ that will benefit Norris and Piastri, 2025-10-29
- The Race – McLaren admits risk of 2007 repeat in letting Norris/Piastri fight, 2025-08-07
- Autosport Forums – McLaren’s strategy for the Hungarian Grand Prix, 2025-08-03