What philosophy does McLaren have for its drivers in 2025?

Team instructions will always be a topic of debate in Formula 1. Between the supporters who put the interests of the team above all else, and the advocates of fair play and sporting equity who don't even want to hear about it, it is sometimes difficult to get everyone to agree, including within the teams themselves. By signing Oscar piastri alongside Lando Norris in 2023, McLaren knew she was attracting a second big fish into her net that would end up giving her a hard time.

This was the case last year, where the performances and consistency of the duo allowed McLaren to become constructors' world champion again for the first time since 1998. On the drivers' side, however, the two men had the unfortunate tendency to share the big points, facing a Max Verstappen not impacted at all on the accounting level by a possible sharing of points with his teammate Sergio Pérez.

The instructions arrived late in 2024

To make matters worse, the Woking team's wall made a point of not favouring anyone internally, not even the son of the house Lando Norris, who was nevertheless better placed in the championship from the start of the season. In Hungary, after Piastri took control of the race from his teammate at the first corner, and the latter did not overtake him in the pit stop game, McLaren strategists had ordered the Briton to give his place back to the Australian so that he could take his first victory.

Later in the season, Lando had managed to close the gap to Max Verstappen, but McLaren waited until very late before asking the Australian to help the Briton. The Melbourne native stepped aside during the Brazilian sprint to give Norris an extra point. Given the points gap to the Dutchman, Lando Norris was not fundamentally impacted by McLaren's decisions on this subject, but it could become a real problem next year, especially if car papaya is ready to attack from the start.

So will there be team orders soon next year in the event of a title fight? "We really want to have this kind of problem, laughs Andrea Stella, the main team. We have worked very hard to have a car and two drivers in a condition to win races. And we know that in Formula 1, that always comes with complications. But these are complications that we have already faced this season to some extent. I think we have always approached that in a consistent way.

Just in case anyone needed a Monday reminder. 🏆 pic.twitter.com/PVFO9NJqiv

- McLaren (@ McLarenF1) January 6, 2025

The Italian details the strategy for the 2024 season. “Both drivers have always been fully aware that we had to find solutions that, first of all, put the interests of the team first and then those of the drivers. So far, I think this process has been very positive. It is a process that we intend to continue next season. But before thinking about this problem… by the way we call it a problem, when it is more of an opportunity.”

No change coming, then, when you read between the lines. “Our goal is to make sure that, from a technical point of view, we give Lando and Oscar a car that is in a condition to fight for the championship. Because if we had done that at the beginning of the season, without having some poor performances in the first races of the season, we would have been able to fight for the drivers’ championship for a longer period of time.” Before thinking about possible instructions, McLaren is first working to ensure that it is playing at the forefront. The answer will be in Melbourne in mid-March, for the first round of the 2025 season.

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