Lando Norris made it clear that both he and Oscar Piastri aim to win the World Championship, as McLaren prepares for a likely intra-team battle ahead of the 2025 Canadian GP.
A head-to-head battle likely between competitive McLaren teammates
Norris currently sits second in the Drivers’ Championship, just 10 points behind Piastri. Speaking to the media in Montreal, ahead of the 2025 F1 Canadian GP, the Briton stated that he believes that a head-to-head battle between the two is inevitable.
Norris said, “We never said we’re going to avoid everything. I think we’ve actually been quite open in saying at some point, something is probably going to happen. We just have to be ready for that.“
He acknowledged their competitiveness but emphasised the importance of unity within the team:
I think both Oscar and myself know that, we’re competitive, we want to beat each other but the main thing is we stay strong together as a team. But everything is in the open, everything is obvious, everything is known between us.”
“We both want to win, we both want to beat each other, but at the end of the day there can only be one person and that will be whoever performs the best over the course of the year.”
While the 25-year-old noted that the 2025 F1 Canadian GP does not mark the start of title pressure, he recognised that tense moments are unavoidable. He acknowledged that such moments are part of racing. He admitted that clashes are likely, even if both drivers aim to avoid them.
“I think Andrea [Stella] said it, it’s not an ‘if’, it’s a ‘when’ and we’ll see when that time comes. But of course we’ll try and avoid everything as much as possible but it’s inevitable that it happens in racing.”
Piastri “deserves everything” he’s earned
Despite the competition between them, Norris praised Piastri for his performance this season. The Australian leads the championship with five wins and continues to deliver at a high level.
“He’s in his third season of F1, I remember in my third season you just come into the year a little bit more confident and with a bit more knowledge and just a more complete driver That’s what he’s done and he’s performing well, he’s driving incredibly well and at a very high level and deserves everything he’s been doing at the minute. It’s a good fun rivalry between us.”
