2025 McLaren F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

What is Piastri has couple more of Bakus? Where he crashes out and loses plenty of points due to his own mistakes? What if McLaren starts prioritizing Piastri and then his engine blows? It sure sounds great to prioritize one driver but at the moment it is too early and too unfair. It's also risky. Piastri is not a proven world champion that is unflappable under pressure (neither is Norris) so it's quite a big ask to choose one at the moment.

[Ben1980]

It's no shame to start giving priority. There aren't many races left and the car doesn't seem to be the fastest anymore. Mclaren must help Piastri defend his lead unless they want Max to get the 5th in such an ironic way. Max is our opponent and the team must make it sure Oscar finishes in front of him.

How? If Oscar is ahead and gets the points then he wins tge title.

It's not a matter to finish ahead of Norris for the sake of it. Verstappen is in the game and he is the main opponent. What if Oscar doesn't win till the end of the championship due to car performance. 3 races now and Mclaren isn't even the top car anymore. The team if able has to help both be in front of Verstappen but if it's not possible at least prioritize the driver who was first for most of the championship and minimize his losses. Norris had plenty of chances and he blew them. Time to decide as Avocado said as so far Piastri has been the better driver this year overall.

The main opponent to Oscar is Lando. If Oscar can't beat Lando to hold on to his points advantage he shouldn't need help to do it.

Max needs 10points per GP weekend over Oscar. If Singapore does what Singapore does and its stays as is, he needs 11 points over 6 weekends.

Oscar just needs to keep doing his thing, and not crash. 2nds and 3rds will be fine.

[Darth-Piekus]

Thing is we don't know if the car has the speed after the rest brought so many upgrades to us standing still. The team either has to bring upgrades to help them defend their advantage they built or help the driver who is closer to the title to at least not lose it from the main rival team.

[michl420]

I am more a Norris fan but I also think they should priorise Piastri more. But what I absolut not want to see is that this strikt 50/50 his hinder the team to attack VER or a race win.

[Badger]

Wow how quick Piastri fans are calling for team orders.

Nope. I'm not a fan of a specific driver, I've been a McLaren fan since day one. I don't care at all whether Norris or Piastri wins the title, all that matters to me is that McLaren wins it. And Piastri has a better chance. The car is still very fast, but why risk anything if you don't have to. Norris had enough chances to be ahead of Piastri. Now it's time to decide.

We’ve seen team orders when things are clear, but we’ve never seen a team call time on a wide open championship with 7 rounds to go. It would be an unprecedented bit of meddling that would sully McLaren’s image completely amongst neutrals and Lando fans. So no, it’s not “risk free”, this course of action would pose a much bigger threat to the McLaren brand than the infinitesimally small chance that Verstappen comes back. Zak is Mr. Branding, and seems to care quite a bit about fairness in the team, he’s never going to go for it at this stage, and that is correct.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Thing is we don't know if the car has the speed after the rest brought so many upgrades to us standing still. The team either has to bring upgrades to help them defend their advantage they built or help the driver who is closer to the title to at least not lose it from the main rival team.

Mercedes didn't bring any upgrades though, they just found a setup that works for them on this circuit.

Please try and refrain from all the melodramatic panic. The realistic chances of Max winning the WDC this year are low.

If Oscar can't beat Lando on merit, then he doesn't deserve to be treated as a No 1 driver.

I disagree that Oscar has been substantially better this season as well. So far both drivers have had a DNF caused by a driver error (Lando in Canada and Oscar in Baku) where their teammate did not win the race. Lando also had a mechanical DNF when Oscar DID win the race. Lando is 25 points behind in the WDC. Without that mechanical DNF he'd be 7 points behind.

Both drivers have been about equal.

As for upgrades etc, McLaren are rightly focused on 2026, to divert resources back to this season at this point would be detrimental to their chance next season. Especially as Mercedes are likely to be their closest rival and have diverted 100% of their focus to next season already.

Red Bull have likely accepted that they are unlikely to be in with a shot next season and so are throwing everything at getting Max another WDC this season before the rules reset.

McLaren just need to maximise every race until season end. There are still circuits coming up that play to the car's strengths.

If Mercedes are in the mix at some races then that potentially helps take points off of Max too.

[Avocado]

We’ve seen team orders when things are clear, but we’ve never seen a team call time on a wide open championship with 7 rounds to go. It would be an unprecedented

I don't know how long you've been following this sport, but history has provided some really disgraceful team orders. I'll give you one example.

2001, Race 6/17, LAST LAP:

Jean Todt to Rubens Barrichello: "LET MICHAEL PASS FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP!!!"

[Badger]

We’ve seen team orders when things are clear, but we’ve never seen a team call time on a wide open championship with 7 rounds to go. It would be an unprecedented

I don't know how long you've been following this sport, but history has provided some really disgraceful team orders. I'll give you one example.

2001, Race 6/17, LAST LAP:

Jean Todt to Rubens Barrichello: "LET MICHAEL PASS FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP!!!"

Yeah, what you are asking for would be much worse than that. Lando is Coulthard in your comparison, the main title rival who is really close on points. There is no Barichello here, a contractual nr 2 who is miles behind in the WDC.

Lando vs Oscar IS THE TITLE FIGHT. It is not up to McLaren to anoint one or the other, it's a quite frankly disgraceful suggestion. Let them earn it. And btw, I don't hear Oscar asking for special treatment, it's you lot.

[Watto]

I don't think it make sense for team orders now McLaren are too far ahead.

The chances of Max overhauling Oscar in particular are very low. If he was say within 10-20 of Oscar and Lando was 20 odd behind Max I would say maybe it makes sense

If Oscar (or Lando) squander this lead I think it's all on them and not team orders . I don't see it happening though. They are both too good.

[_cerber1]

Frankly, I'm baffled; the car hasn't shown any pace for the second race in a row. It feels like McLaren has been banned or is being artificially held back for the sake of championship intrigue. While this was understandable in Baku, there's no reason why we should have been slow in Singapore.

[venkyhere]

So much uproar here about 'team orders immediately needed to prioritizse Piastri'.
I am surprised so many of us haven't figured out McLaren's core philosophy - the WCC pays the bills, brings the sponsor money and hands out the hikes and bonuses to keep the factory+team motivated to stay in McLaren. The WDC is jsut the icing on the cake, while the WCC is the cake itself.
This is completely opposite to a team like Redbull, which is seeing a mass exodus of talent over the past 2 yrs, and their only remaining 'ace' is their super-driver. So the entire focus of that team is to keep their numero uno happy and make him stay in their team.
Two completely different approaches, justified in their own way. IMHO McLaren should just allow the WDC to evolve itself purely on merit. Otherwise, if they interfere, they (the team as a whole) will look like a bunch of hyprocrites to their sponsors and shareholders. The real reason ZacBrown is able to bring in the money, is because of the 'team philosophy that guarantees success' brand building. Any interference to manipulat the drivers into a #1 and #2 will be a torpedo into this core branding.

[Slahinki]

I agree. Time to prioritize Oscar for the WDC. So good overall final result. Russell is gonna go for the win and Piastri can try and do damage limitations. 2nd to 3rd is only 3 points. Mclaren has to bring upgrades as Mclaren have been caught up and today they were surpassed. 3 tenths is a lot. Personally I wouldn't mind if Mercedes gets some wins as long as they keep them from Max.

They didn't prioritise Lando last year. They shouldn't prioritise Oscar this year.

[Balalu]

I think McLaren could possibly start thinking about driver priorities / team orders after what happens tomorrow.

If Verstappen makes another big gain, that could be a game changer, but at this point they are still thinking long term and keeping both of their drivers happy.

[Balalu]

I agree. Time to prioritize Oscar for the WDC. So good overall final result. Russell is gonna go for the win and Piastri can try and do damage limitations. 2nd to 3rd is only 3 points. Mclaren has to bring upgrades as Mclaren have been caught up and today they were surpassed. 3 tenths is a lot. Personally I wouldn't mind if Mercedes gets some wins as long as they keep them from Max.

They didn't prioritise Lando last year. They shouldn't prioritise Oscar this year.

Ok, but Londo did not have a realistic chance last year.

At this point they should not prioritize one over the other, but soon they could be forced to do so. Let's see what happens tomorrow.

[mwillems]

Let’s be clear, Lando won’t lie down. Hes chasing the championship, not a consolation prize.

So pushing McLaren to back Piastri now is dangerous:

Lando will not care about the team and will only care for himself, he won't support Oscar!

It will create huge resentment between Lando and the team, the media issues will linger for as long as the media want to dredge that canal.

Landos position would humiliating and almost untenable, yet he may still be at Mclaren next year.

Who knows which driver the next car will favor?

And what if tomorrow Piastri falls behind all the same — do you eat your words or double down?

Seriously, what are people smoking.