What McLaren must learn from 2024 to secure both F1 championships in 2025
Red Bull was a formidable Formula 1 team in 2024, but a late surge from McLaren threatened to topple the squad and snatch both titles from under its nose. But just as a real challenge from McLaren was materialising, cracks started to form, and it could only take the constructors’ crown last season. Now, with […]
Piastri not fazed by F1 championship lead as race wins are the bigger focus
Oscar Piastri remains intent on not getting carried away now that he is leading the Formula 1 championship for the first time in his short career. The McLaren driver leads the standings by 10 points having won three of the previous four grands prix including the last two in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. That is […]
Do the McLaren drivers’ opposing mindsets signify strength or weakness?
Poker players have a word for Lando Norris’s response to adversity: “leaky”. In a game of bluff and counter-bluff, allowing emotions to manifest outwardly is certainly a disadvantage and a weakness. Is it also the case in a Formula 1 driver? There are those who would argue so, saying this is a brutal dog-eat-dog world […]
How can Verstappen win F1 Saudi GP, and how will Norris move up?
Jeddah’s fast and furious street race is shaping up to be an enthralling contest, thanks to several cars which are starting out of position. At the front there is Red Bull’s pole sitter Max Verstappen, who will be desperately fighting off the faster McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Then there is Lando Norris — starting 10th […]
Why Piastri wouldn’t have gained from using Verstappen’s two-lap quali strategy
Close, but no cigar. This might not have been the actual phrase going through Oscar Piastri’s head, and that of his race engineer Tom Stallard, after Piastri’s first Q3 lap, but the sentiments will have been the same. That lap – 1m27.560s – was actually fractionally slower than his final Q2 lap (1m27.545s) and therefore […]
McLaren fastest again as Piastri tops Norris in FP2
Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris to top a McLaren 1-2 in Formula 1’s second practice session at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Piastri’s qualifying simulation halfway through the one-hour night-time session was enough to usurp his team-mate by a tenth and a half as the pair comfortably cleared third-placed George Russell. Following a sweltering first practice […]
How Verstappen edged McLaren duo in F1 Japanese GP qualifying
Coming into Q3, McLaren had topped every session of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend – free practice, Q1, and Q2 – positioning the Woking-based team as the clear favourite for pole. Oscar Piastri led the way after the first runs in Q3, with Verstappen trailing by a quarter of a second. «I just thought, ‘I’m […]
McLaren F1 car quirks are «more of a penalty» for Norris
A car that’s quick but difficult to drive: this has become a familiar refrain up and down the grid in the final season of Formula 1’s current ground-effect ruleset. Lando Norris struggled with graining in the sprint race in China, labouring to eighth place after dropping three positions on the opening lap, and then had […]
Norris declares McLaren the F1 title favourite with Piastri pushing him to be better
It is rare for Lando Norris to speak with an air of confidence over his 2025 Formula 1 title chances but, after holding off reigning champion Max Verstappen to take victory at the Australian Grand Prix, he concluded McLaren is indeed leading the pack. After McLaren locked out the front row in qualifying, Norris converted […]