McLaren prepared to make major Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri decision

Today at 12:30 AM

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has hinted the team could have to impose team orders on Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at some stage of the 2025 season. During their time together since 2023, Norris and Piastri have been free to race, with team orders only deployed during the 2024 Hungarian GP when McLaren's strategy allowed Norris to undercut Piastri for the lead. Norris finally acquiesced to the demand late on as Piastri won his first race, with the pair now challenging for the F1 drivers' title, with Piastri enjoying a 10-point lead over Norris heading into the Miami GP weekend. Reflecting on the close battle between his drivers, team principal Stella believes one or both of the drivers could be "upset" with a decision made at some point this season. "I can't exclude that this may happen," Stella told media, including RacingNews365 when asked about having to potentially impose team orders to favour one driver over the other. "There are advantages to having two extremely competitive drivers, and I think the advantage in the long term is dominant, and that is what you want, in my view. "But there could be episodically some situations which may leave one of the two drivers a little upset because the team made a decision, or because of how the race unfolded. "So we are very, very aware of this. Internally, we don't talk about 'if this happens', we talk about 'when this happens', because we are aware it is a very difficult business. "We are aware as a team - and Lando and Oscar are aware as well."