After their intense duel for the world title in 2025, McLaren could have feared a deterioration in the relationship between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Andrea Stella, however, assures that the two drivers are collaborating even better this season.
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The fight for a world championship can profoundly change the relationship between two teammates. McLaren was fully aware of this after seeing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri battle until the last race for the title in 2025.
A season ultimately concluded by Norris’s first world championship, while Piastri, long considered the favorite, experienced a much more difficult second half of the championship.
The Australian ultimately finished third in the championship, also behind Max Verstappen.
After such an intense duel, McLaren could legitimately wonder what state the relationship between its two drivers would be in 2026. A few months later, Andrea Stella appears particularly reassured.
An even stronger relationship at McLaren
The McLaren director states that Norris and Piastri have not only preserved their good rapport but that their collaboration has even strengthened.
“Another aspect I really appreciate about our drivers is the way they work together,” explains Andrea Stella.
“It was not guaranteed that after last year, when they found themselves fighting for the world championship until the last race, the harmony they had built would remain intact.”
Tensions are almost inevitable when two drivers with the same car find themselves directly opposed for a world title. Yet, according to Stella, the events of 2025 left no lasting fracture.
“Not only has that not changed, but their relationship with each other and with the team has become even stronger.”
Piastri’s attitude particularly appreciated
While Stella could expect Norris to maintain a positive attitude after winning his first world title, Piastri’s reaction was more of an unknown.
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The Australian had approached the second half of the 2025 season in a strong position before gradually seeing his title hopes fade.
A potentially difficult situation to digest, especially since it was ultimately his own teammate who claimed the crown.
But rather than distancing himself from McLaren, Piastri reportedly adopted the opposite attitude.
“That could, in a sense, be expected from Lando since he ultimately became champion. However, it was less predictable for Oscar,” acknowledges Stella.
“On the contrary, he leaned even more on the team to accelerate his development, both on and off the track.”
A valuable asset for McLaren
This good rapport is excellent news for McLaren in a 2026 season much more difficult than the previous one.
After dominating much of the 2025 campaign, the British team had to cope with a difficult start to the season under the new technical regulations.
Norris’s victory in Hungary, McLaren’s first this year, however confirmed the progress made thanks to the latest developments of the MCL40.
In this context, having two drivers capable of working in the same direction represents an important advantage to accelerate the car’s development.
The 2025 duel could have left lasting marks at McLaren. For Andrea Stella, it seems instead to have contributed to strengthening a Norris-Piastri partnership that remains one of the British team’s great strengths.
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