With the Drivers’ Championship now out of reach, and it being “most certainly” over, Bernie Collins is eager to see Oscar Piastri assert himself at McLaren and avoid being seen as the number two driver in F1 2025.
This season, Piastri has found himself in the situation where he was asked to play second fiddle to Lando Norris as part of McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’. These team orders came into play when McLaren needed to prioritize Norris, who was the higher-placed driver in the standings.
‘Oscar Piastri can now say, ‘I don’t want to be number two driver’
At the start of the season, McLaren treated both drivers equally. But things changed when Lando Norris moved up to second place in the Drivers’ standings at the Spanish Grand Prix, overtaking Charles Leclerc.
Norris, in a fast McLaren MCL38, became Max Verstappen’s nearest challenger in both the standings and on the track.
However, questions about team strategy arose when Norris was told to let Piastri pass him at the Hungarian Grand Prix. This was before a pit stop that gave Norris an undercut, but it resulted in the loss of seven points. Then, at the Italian Grand Prix, Norris lost more points after Piastri passed him early in the race, which allowed Charles Leclerc to overtake Norris as well.
That marked a turning point, and McLaren made it clear that Norris would be the team’s preferred driver moving forward, as he had the better chance of challenging Verstappen for the title. With Norris 44 points ahead of Piastri, McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ came into full effect.
But it wasn’t until the Brazilian Grand Prix that the team orders really made an impact. In Brazil, Piastri started on pole for the Sprint, with Norris in second, and McLaren ordered Piastri to give the win to Norris with just two laps to go.
However, Norris finished sixth in the main race the next day, and Verstappen took a dominant victory from 17th place, extending his lead over Norris to 62 points, making it clear that the championship was “most certainly” out of reach for Norris.
Now, with the Drivers’ Championship no longer a concern, Bernie Collins is keen to see how Piastri handles the final three races of the season.
“The interesting question is, the next three races,” Collins said on the Sky F1 podcast. “If we’re saying the Drivers’ Championship is done – it’s not mathematically but I understand it’s most certainly there – Piastri now has a chance to say, ‘I don’t want to be number two driver at race one next year’.”
“So there’ll be no more of this give up your position in the Sprint race, give up your position in the main race. So I’m quite excited to see how that progresses in the next three.”
Lengthy analysis awaits McLaren with points ‘lost’
Norris’ chance at the title wasn’t solely ruined by the events in Hungary, Monza, and Brazil. There are other factors at play as well.
McLaren had only two podiums before their major upgrade at the Miami Grand Prix, and Norris also struggled with poor starts, losing positions off the line. There were also strategy errors, such as the pit stop window being missed in Canada.
When the team reviews the season, they will examine where points were lost, whether through car performance, driver mistakes, or strategic decisions. “Just to give a little insight, the teams will track for each race where points were lost,” Collins explained.
“Be that the first few races in car performance, how many were lost with driver errors for want of a better word at the start of the race, how many were lost through strategy errors, be that Canada missing the pit stop window, and there’ll be a running tracker through the whole year of where points were lost in that championship and where points were lost for Red Bull as well.”
“So they will know what the biggest points loss through the year has been, where it’s come. And they will look at each of those categories, be it reliability, pit stop decisions, car pace, and they will try and fix bits from each of those. That tracker will be fully available to them.”
Collins added that she has worked with drivers in the past to analyze their biggest deficits and improve from there. She also pointed out that McLaren’s relationship with the drivers and the pit wall needs to improve in order to make faster, more confident decisions next season.
“I’ve done it so many times with drivers in the past and saying, ‘This was the race where you had your biggest deficit to the competition. Let’s look at, is it a specific corner, a specific driving of that event, specific track, roughness, tyre combined, whatever it is’. So there’ll be loads to work on over the winter.”
“The biggest thing for me seems to be this indecision or lack of trust between driver and pit wall that has caused hesitation at some decisions at some points in the year, and they’ll be working on that.”
In the meantime, McLaren is still in a strong position to challenge for the Constructors’ Championship. They are 36 points ahead of Ferrari and 13 points ahead of Red Bull.
