Eight races and a third of the way into the 2025 Formula 1 season and remarkably McLaren team mates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are just three points apart in the World Championship.
Piastri enjoyed a great start to the season, but after something of a blip Norris had the edge in Monaco, taking the pole and the win.
It was something of a scrappy weekend for the Aussie, who had an off in practice and dinged the barriers on multiple occasions as he pushed the limits.
The margins are fine when you are fighting for wins, and it says a lot that he still earned third place despite things not going entirely smoothly.
It will be fascinating to see in Barcelona if Norris has made a genuine step in terms of his qualifying performance, and if Monaco really has given his confidence an all-round boost.
Piastri meanwhile has the sort of mindset that will allow him to learn from last weekend and quickly move on.
Team bosses Andrea Stella and Zak Brown face the tricky challenge of being fair to both men, and giving both a shot the title.
The drivers in turn have to prioritise the interests of the team, and while the constructors’ table is looking favourable for the Woking camp at the moment, there’s still a long way to go.
Piastri has a typically level-headed view of the situation, and he sees a much bigger picture, one that extends far beyond this season’s title fight.
“I think going into the year we knew that it’s impossible to have your own personal goal directly in parallel with the team’s,” he says.
“And that’s something we’ve both been very frank about, something that the team have been very aware of. Because at the end of last year, we felt that if we went to this year with a car as strong as we finished with, we’d be in this situation.
“I think we’ve been very good at being open about it, just talking about it, but we’re never going to do anything that’s unsportsmanlike or puts the team in a bad light, or puts ourselves in a bad light.
“I think that’s just not who Lando and I are. Of course, we want to go out and beat each other every weekend, but we’re never going to cross that line that’s going to cause damage that can’t be repaired, because I’ve said it a few times now, we don’t want just one opportunity at this.
“We’re both at McLaren for a very long time after this year, and we want to fight for the championship every single year. And I think we both understand it’s pretty unwise to try and win one championship and bring the house down with it…”
He’s pleased with how McLaren is keeping the right balance: “I don’t think every team would handle it as we are, no. I think at the same time, there’s not many teams in our situation.
“We’ve got a very good lead in the constructors’ championship at the moment, and whilst we’re continuing to build that gap, I think it’s the right thing to do to let us both try and fight for a championship.”
How the fight will unfold in Spain this weekend and over the remaining races of the season.
“It’s always been tight everywhere we’ve gone,” says Piastri. “There’s been weekends where I’ve been a bit quicker, there’s been weekends where Lando has been a bit quicker, but they’ve not necessarily been the weekends that we’ve beat each other on. There’s more to it than just being fast.
“So I think it’s going to ebb and flow a bit through the whole year. But I’m confident, we’ve analysed what went a little bit wrong in Monaco.
“It still wasn’t a terrible weekend, but just not as good as some of the weekends have been this year for me. So we’ve looked at what we can do a bit better, and we’ll try and put that in action.”
Piastri insists there’s no obvious pattern in terms of which of the pair has an advantage at a particular track.
“Not necessarily, no. I mean, it’s not one type of track that’s been good for me. It’s not one type of corner that’s been good. It’s if anything more who hooks it up on that day, so to speak. So there’s no clear trends, I mean, there never really have been clear trends.
“Of course, there’s slight strengths and slight weaknesses, but again, those also don’t always transfer from track to track.
“One weekend I might be a bit quicker in a high-speed corner. The next weekend it might be Lando. So it’s very, very tight between us. I think we’ve got very similar strengths and weaknesses, and I expect that to stay the same.”
The elephant in the room is that despite downplaying his own chances Max Verstappen continues to score well, and with the McLaren guys sharing out the big points, the Red Bull driver is still very much in contention.
“I don’t think he can be counted out,” says Piastri. “I think the gap is not very large at the moment. And they’ve genuinely been competitive at a decent number of circuits now.
“Of course, there’s been weekends where we’ve been stronger, but again, I think they’ve been developing their car. They’ve been finding more performance. So I think at this point, Max is definitely still in the fight.”
Not having to juggle the interests of both drivers obviously makes Christian Horner’s job easier, but Piastri believes that on balance having two cars in the fight is better than one.
“It helps in some situations. You don’t have to balance both the strategies. You can put all the attention on Max. But at the same time I think Lando and I do gain something from having each other pushing.
“Max is obviously very experienced and very talented. But I do think that Lando and I found some amount of lap time from having competitive teammates.
“Of course, that comes with challenges as well. But ultimately, we want to be fighting for a championship, beating everyone on the grid.
“And if you’ve got someone there pushing you, then whilst it gives you some challenges at time, as a team and as a driver, it also increases your level, which is ultimately what you want.”
Adam Cooper F1 