Piastri reveals he or Norris could have left McLaren in 2025

MIAMI GP SCHEDULE

• FP1 – Saturday May 2, 1:30am
• Spring Qualifying – Saturday May 2, 6am
• Sprint race – Sunday May 3 1:30am
• Qualifying - Sunday May 3, 5:30am
• Race – Monday May 4, 6am

Oscar Piastri has revealed he or Lando Norris could easily have been forced to leave McLaren had they allowed the relentless speculation of in-house fighting get to them in 2025.

With both drivers fighting for the world title, there was no shortage of noise about supposed tensions behind the scenes at McLaren last season.

Claims of preferential treatment from management in favour of Norris were rife, rumours the team was plotting against Piastri despite him leading the drivers’ championship couldn’t be silenced and that ultimately the Aussie was set to leave.

He didn’t and the team stood firm on a “nothing to see here” narrative that remains in place. “Papaya rules” dictated a level playing field which many questioned as the season tipped in Norris’ favour with the Briton eventually crowned world champion.

So why didn’t it get nasty? F1 is a sport famous for rivalries and fallout.

How did Piastri’s relationship with Norris change across the tumultuous second half of 2025?

“I don’t think it really changed, which I don’t think anyone really believes, or they struggle to believe,” Piastri told the High Performance Podcast. “It’s very much down to how we are as people. I think we’re both quite good at separating people and what happens on the racetrack, versus off the racetrack.

“We get asked about our relationship as team-mates quite a lot, and I think probably, it was actually better at the back end of last year than it was in the first six months that we were getting to know each other, just because we know each other more and we’ve spent so much time around one another every year.

“It really didn’t change much, because I think we both knew the situation we were in with trying to beat each other, and only one of us could win. We knew all of that, but it never got nasty.

“And I think that’s a really important thing, because it would have been very easy for last year to have got nasty, and it would have been, if it really got bad, the question of whether one of us was even sat here doing this interview wearing orange.

“But I think just the team dynamic is so important to protect going forward. Obviously, we’ve not started this year quite the way we wanted, but it would have been so easy for the battle of last year to make it look ten times worse, and ten times worse for a long time.”

It’s not just within the parameters of McLaren that Piastri is wary of relationships and ensuring things remain cordial.

While the grid appears a friendly and jovial place, the Aussie admits he finds it hard to be genuine friends with people he races against 24 weeks of the year.

“In F1 there's a massive level of respect between all the drivers, but having respect for one another and being friends with one another are two very different things.

"For me, it's always hard to be genuine friends with somebody that 24 times a year you've got to go on track and prove that you're better than them, basically, or compete against them."

“I get on with a lot of the drivers, and there's definitely some I'm more friendly with than others — and again, some ex-team-mates that I've had in the junior ranks, because we're not racing against each other anymore.

“So it's a tricky old business."