Why the championship lead is now crucial for Norris and Piastri

Who receives the updates from McLaren first in 2025? It's the battle that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are already secretly fighting. With only three points difference, the upcoming races are crucial when it comes to momentum in the internal team duel.

In recent years, McLaren's approach to updates has been the same when it came to updates: many updates at once on one car. The second driver in the championship received the updates a weekend later.

In 2024, the 'unlucky one' was Oscar Piastri. The Australian had a difficult start to the season, fell behind Norris, and failed to catch up during the season. Partly because his teammate always received the updates one race earlier, Piastri couldn't turn the momentum around in that year.

Before 2025, it was already clear that Piastri had to start incredibly strong in 2025 to avoid ending up in the same position again. He succeeded. Despite a dramatic start in Australia, Piastri now has the most wins under his belt and is only three points behind his teammate.

In 2024, the first major update package from McLaren arrived in Miami. That was the sixth race of the season, just like this year. Whether McLaren will introduce an update in Miami again or only in Imola is not yet known, but it means that the pressure is on for both drivers in Saudi Arabia.

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Norris and Piastri after the Grand Prix of Bahrain

Who receives the updates from McLaren first in 2025?

At least, if McLaren applies the same approach as in 2024. Back then, significant updates were quickly brought to have a chance in the title race. Now McLaren is already ahead, and the title fight seems to be between their own drivers. A change in approach would be logical. However, it does not seem to be the case at McLaren.

''We’ll have to see. First of all, what is actually the update. If it’s a front or rear wing, you don’t necessarily need to split between cars — it’s less an involved change. The reason why we went one car at a time in the past is because it was a big change which had involved even changes of the mechanical side, the systems under the bodywork.''

''We have an idea, obviously, because we are working in the background and are just about to pull the trigger in terms of delivery of the next upgrades. That doesn’t mean they will come in a few races, not in the short term.''

''It will also depend on how we’re doing from a performance point of view. If the car keeps being such a strong car, then we might need to take a more considerate approach and make sure we’re not creating any imbalance in relation to fairness with the drivers'', concluded Stella in response to the question from GPblog.

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So while McLaren is considering a different approach as the season progresses, that is not yet the case in the short term. With Max Verstappen eight points behind and George Russell fourteen points behind, McLaren cannot afford to do everything for fair treatment yet. The competition is still too close, and the stakes are still too high.

It will come down to the usual initial updates, which normally make their debut at the start of the European season, possibly initially only on the car of the number 1. Currently, that is Norris, but Piastri will do everything to quickly reverse that order. His manager Mark Webber knows all too well what can happen if you always receive the new parts last.