McLaren are set to claim both World Championships in the coming months, with no realistic contenders left for the drivers or teams’ titles.
Despite this, the next few months will be extremely intense for the papaya outfit.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are in the midst of a title fight where the stakes will continue to rise until its conclusion.
In many ways, Piastri and Norris are only in competition with each other this year.
Rarely do other teams have the pace to meaningfully bother the McLaren pair, especially on race day.
According to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, however, Ferrari could become a thorn in the team’s side over the final 10 rounds.
Stella argues Ferrari still a threat to McLaren
At the beginning of the year, there were moments where various teams emerged as potential dangers for McLaren to contend with.
Initially it was Max Verstappen who presented the biggest obstacle for McLaren, doing enough in the first quarter of the season to stay within striking distance of Piastri and Norris.
Until the technical directive at the Spanish GP, there was still a genuine belief that Verstappen could fight to retain his crown.
Mercedes and Ferrari, meanwhile, have shown flashes of strong performance.
Whilst never faster than McLaren, both teams – especially Mercedes in the hands of George Russell – have been ready to pick up the pieces when Norris or Piastri faulter.
Overall though, McLaren’s advantage over the field is still significant.
In a bid to prevent complacency, however, Andrea Stella believes Ferrari will present a real challenge until the season ends:
“I’m not surprised, because Ferrari have been competitive over the last few races,” he said in Hungary.
“They were competitive in the dry in Silverstone, they were competitive in Belgium. Somehow, this wasn’t expressed fully.
“I think we saw [in Hungary] that they were in condition to score the Pole Position.
“And it’s not like in the first stint [on race day] we were holding back.
“We were trying to go as fast as possible, and Leclerc was managing the lead of the race with some degree of control.
“I think Ferrari [are] going to be a contender for victories for the remainder of the season.”
‘Papaya rules’ to end the season
The topic of ‘papaya rules’ has been relatively common during 2025, with McLaren consistent in the rules of engagement between their drivers.
Ultimately, McLaren’s primary instruction is for Piastri and Norris to avoid making contact with each other.
This has only happened so far in Canada, although – ironically – Norris crashing out helped the team mitigate any fallout from the incident, since the Briton paid the price for his own error.
In the future, however, any incidents between the McLaren duo might be more difficult to manage.
To some extent, Andrea Stella and Zak Brown must accept at least one major incident is inevitable before the end of 2025.
Thankfully for McLaren, their advantage in both Championships means they can afford to be slightly more relaxed about this possibility.
Of course, this is separate from maintaining a sense of harmony within the team – which could become tricky as the world title is increasingly within reach.
Main photo: Peter Fox/LAT Images (via McLaren media gallery)
