As the Formula 1 circus rolls into Miami for the sixth round of the 2025 season, the spotlight may be on surprise Sprint Race pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli and current championship leader Oscar Piastri. But beyond the headlines lies a familiar storyline that seasoned F1 fans have seen before — the rise of a potential intra-team rivalry at McLaren.
While Lando Norris hasn’t publicly expressed concern about Piastri’s title charge, history suggests that when two competitive drivers share a garage, especially at McLaren, fireworks are never far behind.
Let’s rewind through the season so far. Norris, who finished second in the championship last year, began 2025 as McLaren’s lead driver. However, it’s Piastri who has taken the sport by storm, winning three of the last four races and currently leading the Drivers’ Championship with a 10-point advantage over his British teammate. The young Australian has capitalised on Norris’s early seasonstruggles and delivered consistently strong performances, marking a clear shift in momentum within the team.
The pressure is mounting on Norris, who has repeatedly stated that he’s still struggling to adapt to the MCL39, a car Piastri appears to have come to grips with far more quickly.
“I just think he is maybe more naturally able to adapt,” Norris said after the Miami Sprint Race. “It’s a driver’s job to adjust to whatever car they’re given, but there are compromises, and the team is also there to help you extract the maximum from it.”
Also Read: Lando Norris’s Mental Battle Behind the Wheel
Last season, Norris was seen as McLaren’s lone title contender, with team orders, strategic race calls, and upgrade distributions often skewed in his favour. This year, however, Piastri’s emergence as a serious championship threat has complicated matters. McLaren’s apparent inability to manage both drivers’ ambitious driving last year may have been overlooked thanks to their constructors’ championship push. But with Piastri no longer a rookie and now consistently outperforming Norris, the team’s decision-making will come under much closer scrutiny.
With no clear driver hierarchy in place, the question arises: are we witnessing the next great McLaren rivalry?
From Ayrton Senna vs Alain Prost to Lewis Hamilton vs Fernando Alonso, McLaren has a storied history of intra-team clashes. And with Max Verstappen the only serious title contender outside of the McLaren duo — currently 12 points off the lead — this season could see another battle of egos unfold within the Woking outfit.
The legendary Senna-Prost rivalry wasn’t just about on-track dominance, external factors such as contrasting nationalities and media narratives played a major role. The duo combined to win 15 of 16 races in 1988, driving the iconic McLaren MP4/4, but their relationship quickly soured in the hunt for individual success.
Similarly, the tension between Hamilton and Alonso in 2007 stemmed from the reigning champion underestimating the rookie Briton’s talent and perceiving a lack of support from the team. That volatile season remains one of the most infamous examples of a team divided by internal competition and blurred leadership.
Now, in 2025, McLaren may be on the brink of a similar situation. Without a defined lead driver, as both Norris and Piastri are hungry and capable of going for the title, the balance within the team is delicate. History tells us that when McLaren fails to manage such rivalries, the consequences can be dramatic.
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