Lando Norris said McLaren’s strong driver pairing is a vital advantage for them, after they won the two opening rounds of the new season.
He made the remarks after McLaren scored more than double the points of Red Bull over the Australian and Chinese grands prix. All of Red Bull’s 36 points were scored by Max Verstappen, who is Norris’s closest rival at the top of the drivers’ championship.The poor performance of Verstappen’s new team mate Liam Lawson has raised speculation Red Bull may cut him loose just two races after he was hired to replace the under-performing Sergio Perez. Norris says McLaren’s more competitive pairing gives them an edge over the competition.
“Apart from Ferrari, I don’t think there’s another team that has two drivers that push each other anywhere near as much,” he said in the FIA press conference after Sunday’s race. “And for us, that’s a huge advantage.
“Even if you have the same car for everyone, if you have a team with two drivers who can push each other, they’re always going to beat everyone else that’s just on their own.
“We have a great car, we have a great team, but we also have two drivers that are pushing each other more than any other team has. And that will always triumph — even [over] the best driver on the grid.”
Norris said the co-operation between him and team mate Oscar Piastri is “one of our biggest strengths at the minute.”
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“We have different ways we drive. He wants some things on the car, I want different things. But normally our ways align and we always want the same thing in the end.”
Last weekend in Shanghai the teams had to adapt quickly to the changes in grip levels caused by the recently resurfaced track. “Oscar’s ability to adapt to a track like this was impressive, and something I clearly struggled a lot more to do,” Norris conceded.
“I hate understeer. The one thing I almost hate as much as brakes not working is probably understeer, and that’s what we had this weekend. As soon as we put the hard [tyres] on, for instance, my pace was a lot stronger because I had some front, finally.
“But I’ve learned a lot this weekend from Oscar and his ability to adapt to these different situations. It’s definitely something we’ll maximise because it’s helping us beat every other team at the minute.”
The pair pushed each other hard in both races. At Melbourne, when Norris was leading, the team temporarily instructed Piastri not to attack him when they caught a cluster of backmarkers on the damp, drying track. Norris said the team is ready to handle competitive situations between the drivers when necessary.
“We were free to race today, I didn’t have the pace to really get up to Oscar, and he drove very well. So he deserved it.
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“Same really last weekend, there were those two laps that I know everyone loves to talk about where we just held position, but the rest of it, we were free to race. So I’m sure we’re going to have some closer racing at some point. I think we’re both excited – probably nervous and excited at the same time – as I’m sure the team will be. But we’re ready.”
He believes the competition between McLaren’s drivers will serve them well if they find themselves under more pressure from rival teams in later races.
“We know that as much as we work together and we have a good time and enjoy ourselves, we both know we want to try and beat each other and show who’s best,” he explained. “And that’s inevitable. So there’s no point trying to hide away from that fact or make something of it.
“We’re two competitors who both want to win. But we help each other out. I think we both achieved something better this weekend because of that fact. And we’ll continue to do that.
“So I’m sure at the minute it’s going to be like that, but like Oscar said, at any point other teams can find something. Other teams have talked about upgrades and stuff already and they can catch up quicker than you think, just like we did last year. So as much as we’re doing that, we also have to think as a team and keep pushing the team forward from that side.”
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2025 Chinese Grand Prix
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- Even the best driver on the grid needs a team mate to push them – Norris
Wellbalanced
25th March 2025, 9:01
I do think there is something in what Lando is saying – top quality drivers can really drive a team as a whole forward, inspiring and demanding the rest of their colleagues onwards. And therefore there can be no argument as to the logic of what he’s saying from the constructors’ championship side of things.
But there can be argument from the drivers’ championship side of things. A close but not quite level number two will provide the number one with the help he needs, whilst not snatching points away. Schumacher and Barrichello at Ferrari spring to mind as a good example.
Note, ‘argument’, because you could say that the first point counterbalances the second, and there is the additional point of locking a driver into your team who would otherwise be a rival.
But you could argue – note, ‘argue’ – that both McLaren and Red Bull are out of kilter on this front: i.e. McLaren’s drivers might take points off each other, and Red Bull are (currently) lacking a second driver who can get up to speed and help Verstappen in the races.
Which leads me on to Red Bull and their second driver: Lawson should be given more time, obviously. The team showed faith in him by choosing Lawson, and should now give him at least the assurance of a full season to allow him to gain his confidence in the difficult Red Bull and get to the requested three tenths off Verstappen.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
25th March 2025, 11:05
Going back and watching races from the Hakkinen vs Schumacher period (97-2000-ish I guess) I was surprised by how often Coulthard is in the mix. He regularly out qualifies them, leads, wins. He’s involved in the title fight, not just a no.2 as I kind of remembered him as.
But in an era of unreliability where drivers could fall out of contention just because of ‘luck’. Their system worked, often running alternate strategies, and not favouring one over the other until late in the season. Obviously that McLaren and this one are very different. But it is possible to have equal status without it turning into a child’s birthday party with all the protagonists in the corner crying saying ‘he hit me!’.
It’s from a different era, but the Schumacher / Max model of having a no.1 isn’t necessarily the best formula. If you have teammates who respect each other, and I guess a decent boss and team structure, they can prevail, ever if only one of them gets the trophy.
BasCB (@bascb)
26th March 2025, 7:23
I kind of think that having a “clear leader” and a no2 driver teaming works best when you have 1. an exceptional driver to do that job, but also an exceptional design team which means the car, with that driver, is always at the front. As soon as it gets tighter, and tiny differences can mean nailing pole/front row or having to start from the 3rd-4th row and having work to do, having 2 drivers helps both by having more chances at being the one to nail stuff and it means both can learn from each other and that can help the team find those tiny extras to be the fastest car.
bookgrub (@bookgrub)
26th March 2025, 2:02
I can’t see RB giving him that time, unfortunately. The team championship is slipping away rapidly, and if Lawson doesn’t improve quickly (or the team lacks confidence he will) then I think they’ll ditch him in hopes of salvaging a shot at the trophy.
I know they were trying desperately to hold on last year, but Perez only contributed nine points in the last eight races. If they’d dropped him for Lawson earlier then maybe both the team and Lawson would be better placed now.
Patrick (@anunaki)
25th March 2025, 9:18
I think the main advantage having two strong drivers is the feedback they give to improve the car. I don’t think a great driver needs to be pushed by his teammate to perform.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
25th March 2025, 12:15
I agree – there are plenty of drivers on the grid that will push you. The only benefit of having a teammate that’s pushing you would be the feedback they would provide for the car and the possibility of testing more setups and sharing them (if they are willing to do that).
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
25th March 2025, 22:05
we don’t actually know if any of them are strong drivers. Because the car could just be that good.
What is clear is Lando needs to be ‘present’ in his duties, and not thinking about winning the championship, the next year. Bro, needs to focus on executing, not fulfilling his imagined future.
Oscar, not terrible, not bad, maybe good, but its really too hard to tell, because the team might be early day’s-ing it, and just making sure that both drivers get enough points, to justify resigning Oscar, and making all the sponsors happy.
Jonathan Parkin
27th March 2025, 4:21
In the immortal words of Devon Butler;
‘You have got to drive the car your in’
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
25th March 2025, 9:35
This is true in one sense, but two fairly equally matched drivers have the potential to take wins from each other, which whilst great for the WCC can have an impact on the WDC standings.
It’s quite possible that like last year McLaren will win the WCC, but another driver like Max could accumulate enough wins and points to snatch the WDC because he has no other driver in the team taking some high points from him regularly.
An Sionnach
25th March 2025, 10:03
I don’t know. I can see that Oscar and Lando are pushing each other to improve and that’s good for them. In the case of Max, he is a man possessed of an extreme focus to always be the best. I don’t think anything can motivate him more than he already is. A bit like Schumacher. That said, Alain Prost usually had competitive team mates and he worked out how to beat them all. He was about as good as anyone could ever be. I think Senna could have benefited from more competitive team mates if he would have looked at his own driving critically and tried to improve. It really does depend. Most people are not Max or Schumacher, though. When it comes to world championships, teams have failed to win with the best car due to competition from team mates. Maybe the competition helps the drivers to improve, but the world championship cupboard remains bare!
Peat Smoke
25th March 2025, 11:17
Nice PR by Lando. He’s obviously better than Piastri, so Oscar won’t be able to push him too much. Just enough to keep him honest.
Colin
25th March 2025, 12:57
Umm, Lando, Norris didn’t “push” you, he beat you…
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
25th March 2025, 13:05
F1 is littered with team mates who push each other on and leave the door adjar for someone else to come and nick it off both of them. The rear gunner model would seem to work best where the other driver only takes points off the opposition. ‘letting them race’ has cost Mclaren before and it will again. Its just Maths
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
25th March 2025, 13:47
At least McLaren has the luxury to still win Constuctors even if the two will take each other out, which will probably happen at least once.
I think Oscar is a bit more aggressive than Lando and will take more chances he is also as cool as a cucumber while Lando is more emotional and easily distracted.
I put my money on Oscar…
MichaelN
25th March 2025, 14:14
Maybe, but I always think back to Benetton in 1996. Berger and Alesi were a competitive pairing just as they had been at Ferrari previously, but they left Ross Brawn frustrated and packing his bags to go to Ferrari. Why? He felt the B196 was every bit as good as the dominant B195 but lamented that neither Berger nor Alesi could do anything close to what Schumacher had done the year before.
People derisively talk about the ‘Schumacher model’, but I have yet to see a convincing case that anyone in the late 1990s would have been able to do much of anything to Schumacher. Even if you’d have paired him with a Häkkinen or a Villeneuve I don’t think it would have been particularly close. Maybe when you get to the mid 2000s and pair him with a young Alonso… maybe. The same is probably true for Verstappen now.
If the McLaren is so good that Piastri and Norris can duke it out for the title(s), more power to ’em. But against a Verstappen in an equal/same car? I suspect it wouldn’t be very interesting. But hey! That’s the game; the cars matter as well.
Alex Peak
26th March 2025, 15:45
Really great points you’re making. If you listen to the Bring Back V10s podcast, there’s an interesting piece on how Ross Brawn left Benetton for Ferrari and how Jean Alesi was super talented but frustrating and wasn’t a deep thinker or politically adept like Gerhard Berger was. He was very much driven by emotion. While Berger was more adept, he didn’t have that last degree of raw pace and wasn’t that adaptable so it meant both couldn’t extract much performance out of the B196 which also suffered from poor reliability.
MSC tested the 412/T2 at the end of 1995 and commented that it was good enough to win the title and couldn’t understand why it wasn’t a contender. Which tells me that car and the 412/T1 of ’94 were capable of better than what Berger and Alesi extracted from them.
I suspect Max is in the same Schumacher/Senna/Alonso ballpark where he can extract any speed from difficult cars. Those three took cars to podiums/wins the cars didn’t deserve and left their teammates behind.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
25th March 2025, 15:30
Do top teammates take points from each other? I would challenge this line of thinking. Hoping someone with better math skills can answer this.
I feel there are 20 drivers all competing for points. So why would teammates scoring points be different than a driver scoring points and the teammate does not score points?
I also challenge the logic of the DRS train because the first car in the train does not have DRS so they should be vulnerable to the car behind.
S Arkazam
25th March 2025, 15:47
Not sure if I have the better math skills of the three of us, but I’ll try it anyway.
When McLaren has the fastest car (like this year) and both drivers are similarly skilled, then (typically) Norris will win some races (e.g. Melbourne) and come second behind Piastri during the other races (China); thus scoring sometimes 25 points and sometimes 18.
When RBR has the fastest car (like many races over the last couple of years) then Max will (almost) always go home with the 25 points.
Thus in a year where Mclaren and RBR are fastest half of the races, then Max will still walk away with the drivers title.
Giang
25th March 2025, 16:27
Verstappen wasn’t pushed by a teammate at all, in any of his championships, and he did quite alright.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
25th March 2025, 22:02
Until he had to race on the curbs of Miami. Those curbs in Miami were so horrible they shattered Verstappen’s confidence, and now he is just known as Mini Verstappen, or almost Mighty Max.
RH
26th March 2025, 20:58
It’s called Skill Issue Lando.