Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has offered a pointed warning to McLaren following the collision between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris during the Canadian Grand Prix. The Austrian believes the team now faces a situation strikingly similar to the fraught rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes.
Contact in Canada raises alarm
Tensions came to a head in the final stages of the Montreal race, when Norris and Piastri made contact on the start/finish straight while battling for fourth place. The incident sent Norris into the wall and earned him a five-second penalty. After the race, Norris admitted fault, stating he “misjudged it,” while McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella called the clash “not acceptable.”
It marked the first on-track incident between the two teammates this season, though they have been closely matched throughout the campaign. Piastri currently leads the Drivers’ Championship by 22 points over Norris, with the pair having secured seven of the ten race wins so far.
Wolff sees parallels with Mercedes’ past
Speaking after the 2025 F1 Canadian GP race, Wolff drew comparisons to the intense rivalry he managed between Hamilton and Rosberg during their time at Mercedes.
“If I go back to 2016 with Nico and Lewis, you’ve got two drivers only in the fight for the championship, inevitably they came together,” said Wolff. “You’ve got the same scenario now at McLaren, they’re a one horse race it seems.”
Managing intra-team rivalries while chasing title ambitions
He acknowledged that such intra-team rivalries are difficult to control, even with careful management and foresight.
“How difficult is it to manage? It’s all very well Zak [Brown] saying that he’s anticipating it, but how do you manage that scenario between two drivers?” he asked.
Wolff continued by referencing the upcoming F1 film directed by Joseph Kosinski, which centres on a fictional team torn by internal rivalry.
“Well, I’ve seen the [F1] movie, and I was right in there as an actor, as a cast,” he joked.
Returning to a more serious note, he added: “It’s difficult, because it’s what drivers are calibrated to and conditioned to all their life — win championships, and particularly when you come into Formula 1. And I think the trick is here to establish the rules, establish how do we want to go about it.”
Constructors’ lead brings added complexity
McLaren’s commanding position in the Constructors’ Championship adds further complexity to the situation. The team currently leads Mercedes by 175 points, with both drivers consistently performing at the front.
“It obviously increases the complexity if the Constructors’ Championship is in your hands too,” said Wolff. “You could always argue, well, you know, we need to win the Constructors’ Championship, we need to score these points. But in that case, they are so far ahead that it’s not even a question whether they will win that.”
The wide margin lowers the pressure to prioritise points over managing internal harmony, which may expose the team to further clashes if they do not clearly define expectations.
Different characters, same script
Although Wolff acknowledged that the personalities involved at McLaren differ from those in his Mercedes team, he cautioned that the risks remain very real.
“So, it’s certainly a tricky situation. The characters are very different than they were with us. And it’s about, you know, strong management to learn that,” he said.
As McLaren heads into the second half of the season with two title contenders, the team faces a significant management challenge. Whether Stella and Brown can maintain harmony between Piastri and Norris could determine whether McLaren celebrates a dominant double title or endures a disruptive internal feud.
