Formula 1 expert Martin Brundle believes that the World Championship battle between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris at McLaren is “doomed to fail in many ways.”
The two McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, are engaged in an intense battle for their first Formula 1 world championship title. Ahead of this weekend’s US Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, only 22 points separate the two, with Piastri leading the championship.
The “papaya philosophy” that McLaren has been pursuing since the start of the season came under fire for the first time two weeks ago in Singapore. The team has since reviewed the collision between Norris and Piastri in the first lap.
On Thursday in Austin, Norris said that there were consequences for him personally. The current World Championship runner-up did not elaborate on what exactly those consequences were or are. And McLaren team boss Andrea Stella also did little to clarify the situation with his comments. Martin Brundle, a former Formula 1 driver and now a TV expert at Sky, described his view of the McLaren title duel on Friday in Austin: “There’s a title to be won. McLaren has a fantastic car, and Max [Verstappen] is appearing in the rearview mirror pretty quickly.”
“You have two extremely competitive athletes working in a team environment. That’s always going to go wrong. The question is how to deal with it,“ said Brundle, who is convinced: ”This constellation is doomed to fail in many ways.“
The ”papaya philosophy,” which McLaren has been pursuing since the start of the season, came under fire for the first time two weeks ago in Singapore. The team has since addressed the collision between Norris and Piastri in the first lap. On Thursday in Austin, Norris said that there were consequences for him personally. The current World Championship runner-up did not elaborate on what exactly those consequences were or are. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella also did little to clarify the situation with his comments.
Martin Brundle, former Formula 1 driver and current TV expert at Sky, described his view of the McLaren title duel on Friday in Austin: “There is a title to be won. McLaren has a fantastic car, and Max [Verstappen] is appearing in the rearview mirror pretty quickly.”
“You have two extremely competitive athletes working in a team environment. That’s always going to go wrong. The question is how you deal with it,” said Brundle, who is convinced: “This constellation is doomed to failure in many ways.”
When asked what the consequences for Norris might be after the Singapore maneuver against Piastri, Brundle replied: “It’s clear that whatever they do will remain within the team and will have no impact on the overall performance of the team against others.”
And the TV expert also has a very specific idea of what that might look like. “If we were in a development race, Oscar would be the first to get the new parts, for example. Or if it’s a track where you need slipstreaming in qualifying, Oscar would be given priority. It will be some kind of internal team thing that other teams can’t benefit from.”
Jenson Button, 2009 Formula 1 world champion, told Sky: “We all love a good world championship battle. In terms of performance, both are giving their all and going all out. That’s great to see. But when the team gets involved in how hard you can push your teammate, it naturally becomes complicated, especially internally.”
“It’s a little strange because I think what McLaren is doing is actually very good for the sport,” adds Brundle, referring to McLaren’s rule not to drive into each other’s cars. “They can drive freely from start to finish, with one condition: they must not collide with each other.”
“If it hadn’t been Piastri next to him [in Singapore], the team would have cheered Lando for the first few corners. He actually drove brilliantly, he just happened to touch his teammate,” said Brundle.