McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella plans to give Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri “equal opportunities at the start of the 2025 Formula 1 season.
As McLaren’s car improved last season, Norris and Piastri found themselves in winning contention on several occasions, often simultaneously.
Piastri’s maiden win at the Hungarian Grand Prix came amid team orders which it took several laps to enforce upon a temporarily stubborn Norris.
When the Australian lined up alongside polesitter Norris at the Italian GP, ‘Papaya Rules’ came into play, but that didn’t stop Piastri from putting a tough Lap 1 move on his team-mate at Monza.
With Thursday’s launch of the McLaren MCL39 coming with title aspirations, Stella was asked how the team will handle two drivers gunning for eternal glory.
“So the team is in the lucky position of having two drivers that can contend for victories, like they have already proven, and can contend for championships if the car will be good enough to actually be competitive,” Stella replied.
“The main aspect is that both drivers start the season with equal opportunities, and our fundamentals are based on the racing principles that we already used last year.
“I was actually quite proud of last season. We reviewed all the situations in which there was a proximity between the two drivers, and I was quite impressed by how well they behaved.
“So we started from the equal opportunities and the racing principles.”
Stella proud of intra-team dynamic at McLaren
McLaren showed, despite the confusion in Hungary, that its drivers were willing to play the team game.
That was proven when Piastri ceded Sprint victory to title-hopeful Norris at Interlagos and the latter returning the favour a few weeks later.
Stella, however, was “proud” of the way his drivers handled post-race conversations following potential points of conflict.
“For me, one point I’m quite proud to share is that when we reviewed last season, the drivers and the team — most of the time represented by myself — we always looked at ourselves: ‘I could have done this better’, rather than Lando saying ‘Oscar should have done this better’, and Oscar saying ‘Lando should have done this better,’” said Stella.
“So I think we take some learning from last year, but already I think that was positive in terms of how we interacted and acted together as a team, and then we will start from this concept of equal opportunities and our racing principles.
“And the racing principles, it’s important to say, they are representative not only of what the team believes in terms of how we go racing, but also what the drivers believe as to how we go racing, because if a driver is not fully into these principles, then that’s not the right driver for McLaren.”
Doubling down on the prospect of handling two drivers gunning for the title, Stella said “I really look forward to have this kind of challenge.
“It means that we are doing well as a team, it means that the two drivers are doing well as drivers, and it means that the car is actually competitive and we did a good job from a technical and racing point of view,” he added.
“And in terms of how we will manage that, it goes back to what I just said, we start with equal opportunities and we will lean on our racing principles and just very good conversations with our drivers,” Stella concluded.
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