Norris sees Piastri as a threat? "Oscar is hungry for a championship"
F1 News
As far as team dynamics go, come 2025 it will be all to play for at McLaren, the current Constructors' champion, and whose drivers have been dubbed favorites to win the world title following the papaya team's overall supremacy over their rivals last year. Lando Norris, however, has reacted to teammate Oscar Piastri's reiterative verbal claims to the 2025 drivers' championship.
Two drivers who won't -potentially- have the issue of dealing with a teammate being a threat to their championship hopes are Max Verstappen and -if Mercedes rises up to the occasion- George Russell, given that the drivers who will race alongside them should take some time to get themselves acclimatised to their respective teams and car philosophy and the pressure of being in a top team. However, at McLaren it will be a different story.
"It’s a very difficult one to just kind of give an answer that will cover the season. There isn’t an answer that will just cover all of it," says Norris to Motorsport Week. "I think how we dealt with things last year was very good. But like I just said, it’s a different year. How we start the year, it just changes everything," referring to McLaren being unable to start the seasons off on the right foot.
Does Norris see Piastri as a threat?
"I know Oscar's hungry for a championship, and every driver is. And for sure he’s capable of winning a championship. But at the same time, kind of with me taking one race at a time, and that’s our mentality as a team, everyone knows that we want to beat each other, and you want to be the top dog in the team, and that’s normal, that’s the expectation," said Norris of the current situation within the team.
"But I don’t think it changes anything. I hope it doesn’t in some ways, I know probably in some ways it will, because that’s competitiveness. Every driver wants to go out and prove their point," concluded the McLaren driver.
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