McLaren saw a familiar story unfold at the Japanese GP – Max Verstappen claiming victory despite being at a car disadvantage. Norris and Piastri paid the price for mistakes in qualifying, with the Dutchman asserting himself in the title race at Suzuka.
This is not to suggest that Norris and Piastri are a weak driver pairing – their speed is certainly not in question.
Still, there is undeniably a gap between the papaya duo and Verstappen. This puts the Woking-based squad under pressure to continue improving – despite their already impressive development.
According to Helmut Marko, though, Oscar Piastri was the faster McLaren in Japan.
McLaren must manage Piastri and Norris
Despite claiming two victories last year, Oscar Piastri was quite objectively behind Lando Norris last season.
The Australian driver was usually one step behind in qualifying, whilst also suffering a deficit in terms of tyre management.
However, it must be said that clear signs of progress have emerged in 2025 so far.
Piastri’s race pace has been superior to Norris in at least two – and arguably three – of this year’s Grand Prix.
He is also much closer over one lap, only 0.044 away from Pole Position in Japan despite a massive error in Japan Q3 (costing him at two tenths).
Considering his clearly improved start to 2025, the battle between the McLaren duo will be even more intense this season.
With the 2026 regulations representing a complete unknown, both papaya drivers know this year could be their best chance at claiming a title.
In theory, having two competitive drivers is a strength.
Last year’s constructors standings were unequivocal evidence that relying on one driver is unsustainable in modern F1.
However, considering the relentless nature of Max Verstappen, McLaren cannot afford to have their drivers taking points away from each other.
Of course, there is always the possibility that Andrea Stella’s team increase the gap to Red Bull.
George Russell is among those who expects the MCL39’s advantage to grow.
With that said, Red Bull’s own development (not to mention new flexi-wing restrictions) could complicate matters for McLaren.
Red Bull critical of McLaren strategy
All team principals, to varying degrees, play the political game off-track.
Zak Brown, for example, jumped at the first opportunity in Japan to criticise Red Bull’s driver pairing – suggesting that Yuki Tsunoda was more deserving of the seat than Lawson.
In a similar fashion, Helmut Marko needs no invitation to scrutinise McLaren.
He argues that Piastri and Norris should have swapped positions in Japan:
“The strategy they choose is up to them,” nextgen-auto quotes Marko as saying.
“It looked like Piastri was the faster driver.
“The question is whether he could have overtaken Max, because that’s a different story on this circuit.
“But maybe this is a new version of the Papaya rules!
“We would have swapped, but McLaren has the Papaya rules, and they are their own rules.”
As team principal Andrea Stella explained post-race, the difficulty of overtaking in Japan meant that Piastri would have struggled to overtake.
Regardless, this is not the first time McLaren have been forced to make big calls with their drivers running in close proximity.
As this year’s title fight intensifies, the extent to which the Woking squad can navigate this challenge will be exposed.
Thus far, they have failed to consistently capitalise on their superiority in terms of machinery.
It is crucial this is addresses quickly, especially if Red Bull’s next upgrade package makes a positive impact.
