Inside McLaren’s season – the rules, values, incidents & relationships

Perhaps McLaren’s biggest accomplishment this year wasn’t their best work yet. It’s something they have managed off it.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, both of whom are already constructors’ champions, have a chance to capture the drivers’ title, Norris 24 points ahead of Max Verstappen, Max’s teammate, and Max Verstappen, both of whom are Red Bull drivers.

Norris and Piastri have got here while remaining friendly.

In modern F1, McLaren is almost unmatched in its ability to keep two drivers who are evenly matched and have similar ages and career paths from competing for the same team without getting into a fight.

This sort of situation turns toxic far more often than not.

Not just Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at McLaren in 1989, but most infamously, it is most infamous. But also Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet at Williams in 1986-7, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at McLaren in 2007, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber at Red Bull in 2010, and Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes in 2014-16.

It’s hard enough to stop things getting noxious even when two title rivals are in different teams, such as in the tense relationship between Hamilton and Max Verstappen in 2021.

Add to the rivals’ claustrophobia, team briefings, and balancing race strategies, and the intensity only rises.

Heading into this season, McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella were well aware of the jeopardy, and consciously created a culture aimed at preventing the relationship between Norris and Piastri descending into disruptive conflict.

They have a carefully considered internal philosophy that two drivers have been persuaded to use to achieve harmony are best served by using intelligence and empathy.

McLaren operate on a principle of fairness, trust and transparency, rooted in a basic principle that the drivers are allowed to race each other with equal treatment, with the proviso that they don’t crash into each other.

Stella refers to McLaren Racing as “We.” “We are here to race.

We want to give our drivers the opportunity to express their talent and realize their goals, but this must be done in accordance with the principles and strategy we have worked with our drivers to develop. Fairness, sportsmanship, and respect for one another. “

The starting point was that the only place the team cannot be fully united is in the quest for the drivers ‘ championship. Don’t ignore that, therefore. Put it first, and work from there.

According to Stella, “We have learned so much from our past actions,” the way we operate today. We talk to the driver – straight talking.

“And it needs to be, “We didn’t think about it,” if we find something wrong right now. But it can’t be because we haven’t talked openly and straight and honestly enough. Because of the problem’s nature, that is the recipe.

Why this approach? Because issues are not raised when they first arise, they will likely surface the following time they are present, when they are more likely to be expressed negatively and thus become more difficult to control.

Stella’s achievement has been to get Norris and Piastri to buy into the idea that trusting the team to operate fairly is in their best interests, as well as those of the team, and consequently that the drivers should behave accordingly.

Both of their careers have been at McLaren, both have grown up with the team, and he has probably been helped by the fact that he can attest to what the team are trying to achieve and create.

The drivers have reflected the culture Stella has constructed in repeatedly making two key points this year.

McLaren advances because it consistently raises the bar of performance and gives them a clear advantage over their competition, and because they both want this to be their first title campaign with McLaren, not just their own.

Norris says having “two drivers who respect the team and are not selfish” is fundamental in this.

He claims that “we function as team members very well.” “We’ve helped the team in a very good way. There have been numerous instances of things not going as smoothly as they have in the past. And the team’s then gone in a downward spiral. As a team, we want to avoid doing that, and that is our top priority.

He adds: “I’ve always got on well with my team-mates since karting. I’ve always wanted to because it just makes life more enjoyable and enjoyable, and I’m doing it because I enjoy what I do. So, the more I can do that, the better.

“But we still very well understand that we work for McLaren, that we want the team to succeed, and that we put in a lot of effort.”

“As drivers always do, you try and maximise your own performance more than anything. However, we still have laughs in our debriefs, jokes in our debriefs, and we still enjoy being away from the track when we leave the car.

Off track, there is no tension between Norris and Piastri. They are close friends, but they are not at all.

What does that mean? For instance, if they are at a party, they will converse and eat together while enjoying each other’s company. But they probably won’t be messaging when they’ve left.

Both have made it clear that they would rather race this way and risk losing to a rival, as is possible with Verstappen this year, than having one prioritized by the team to the detriment of the other.

Piastri says: “On both sides of the garage, we want to win because we’ve been the best driver, the best team, including against the other car in the team.

You always aim for merit and can always defeat everyone, including your team-mate.

A small group of senior figures at McLaren discuss with the drivers how they are going to approach their racing. After each grand prix, they reflect on what transpired and apply the lessons learned to the following race.

This happens in formal meetings, more informal conversations and ad hoc.

And they continue to expand on that strategy.

This is all well and good in theory, but it’s only sustainable in practice if everyone sticks to the principles when problems arise, as they inevitably do through an F1 season.

There have been a number of races tested on equality and harmony in 2025, particularly those from Hungary, Italy, Singapore, and Austin.

In Hungary, Norris was allowed to switch to a one-stop strategy after a bad start left him fifth, and ended up beating Piastri, whose two-stop from an early second place saw him spend the final laps trying and failing to pass Norris for the win.

After the race had run in Verstappen’s place, they made the decision to reverse the natural pit-stop routine in Italy, followed by a slow pit stop for Norris and the request to hand Piastri the second spot he had inherited.

In Singapore, Norris scrambled past Piastri into third place at the first series of corners, banging wheels in the process, leading to the Australian saying over the radio: “Are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way”?

An attempted cut-back by Piastri on Norris at the first corner of the sprint race in Austin caused a collision that caused both of them to lose.

Externally, these situations have either led to accusations that Norris was being favoured, or that McLaren were meddling too much, or both.

They were handled quietly, behind closed doors, and it appeared that everyone left feeling satisfied that their problem had been resolved successfully.

McLaren insiders have told BBC Sport that the driver meetings really are conducted in the way they are externally presented – issues are discussed openly, constructively and calmly, and a resolution is arrived at from which everyone can move on with equanimity, even if they had issues with what happened at the time.

They haven’t given a damn about it in public if there has been any deviation from what the drivers have in private minds.

Piastri has rejected any suggestions that the team was not being fair, saying he’s “very happy that there’s no favouritism or bias”.

And Norris asserts that “we still have the right to raise doubts.” We’re never going to just go around – because I think it’s just a racing driver’s mind – and be happy to accept whatever the team wants to do or what they think is correct.

I am aware that many people have differing viewpoints and believe some things to be true. But I still stand by the fact that Andrea and Oscar and all of us together are confident that our approach is better than what other people’s are. “

Brown claims that any notion that the team is supporting Norris is “nonsense.”

He explains that when they let Norris switch to a one-stop in Hungary”, Andrea and I were like, ‘ This ain’t gonna work. ‘ However, Lando made a fantastic free punt.

Monza, he says, was” just like what happened in Hungary the year before”, when Norris let Piastri by for the win after a similar pit-lane arrangement.

That’s great teamwork, according to Brown, “If the lead car is willing to sacrifice their rights to the first call to help his team-mate, who is actually his top-ranked competitor in the championship, to the first call.”

” So I understand what it looks like from the outside, but it’s not what’s going on on the inside, and we’re trying so hard to give them equal opportunity and let them race hard. I’d like to see more people recognized for that.

Can this endure? That’s impossible to know.

Norris and Piastri appear modest and selfless. They are also both intensely ambitious.

A driver’s title can change. The more successful they become, the more demanding they get, especially in their requirements off-track.

McLaren has handled Norris and Piastri sensitively and effectively, but the challenges remain despite this fact.

If anyone has an understanding of how hard it is to pull this off, it is Fernando Alonso.

The two-time champion has lived this dynamic in a title fight, and he has collaborated with both Stella and Brown: Brown at McLaren from 2010 to 2016, and Brown when the American joined the American in 2016.

“The credit has to go for Andrea and Zak that they created a winning structure and car, but they were also able to manage the drivers for the benefit of the team”, Alonso says.

“Some of the wins have no controversy, so it’s less exciting to watch and less exciting for the media,” he said.