McLaren have two drivers battling each other for the F1 title again and in 2007 the last time that happened, it didn’t end so well between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso
McLaren will let Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri race for title glory – but admit things could blow up as badly as the last time they had two drivers in a championship fight. The feud between rookie Lewis Hamilton and two-time champion Fernando Alonso in 2007 tore the team apart.
It led to Alonso quitting after both were beaten to the Formula 1 title by Kimi Raikkonen, who remains the most recent champion to win with Ferrari. Max Verstappen is 97 points behind championship leader Piastri and so a repeat of that is highly unlikely to happen.
And the Aussie has managed to maintain a strong relationship with Norris despite both hunting individual honours. But McLaren Racing chief executive Zak Brown admits that could all change as they remain committed to letting their drivers decide things on track.
The American said: “We’re comfortable with how we go racing. We also know we don’t always get it right. We are and always will be, and I think we always have been, a two-car team. We recognise the consequences of that could be 2007. You got two drivers that tie and lose to Kimi by a point.
“We could have won that drivers’ championship, but who do you pick? And then you run the risk of the guy you don’t pick, he’s out of here. Our drivers are treated equally fairly. There’s nothing in their contract that gives one priority over the other, nor have they ever asked for that. They just want fair and equal treatment.
“We know that benefits the team. They accept that, they’re cool with that, and we know the risk of that, if you’d like, from a driver point of view, is 2007. But I think the downside of favouring one or the other is that one then wants to leave, which is exactly what happened at the end of ’07 [anyway].
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“And you put the constructors’ championship at risk, right? You see other teams favour one, and that kind of is beneficial to the drivers’ championship, but detrimental to the constructors’. Both championships are equally important to us.”
McLaren are 299 points clear at the top with 10 rounds remaining and are almost certain to retain their teams’ title this year. But things between their drivers are remarkable tight with Piastri just nine points ahead after Norris’ victory in Hungary last Sunday.
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Their only flashpoint on track so far was in Canada when Norris ran into the back of his team-mate, ending his race. But that was a misjudgement on the Brit’s part rather than two drivers going over the line, and Norris admitted as quickly as his apologies were accepted by both Piastri and the team.
And Brown remains confident, adding: “I don’t think they will properly fall out, because of the communication, trust and respect we all have, and they have for each other. We’re very fortunate to have the two personalities that we have. We love the challenge – like, I’m looking forward to them racing each other. So we like it. It’s not the elephant in the room.”