McLaren seeks to avoid further issues at the Austrian GP where Norris takes the lead.

McLaren is a unique team, as demonstrated by the events that unfolded this Sunday in Austria, where Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri engaged in fierce competition without any intervention from the team’s leadership. If they did intervene, their mediation was so subtle that neither driver could use it as an excuse to justify their actions. Two weeks after the unfortunate outcome in Canada, where Norris became too aggressive and crashed into the wall while desperately trying to overtake his teammate, the Bristol driver managed to redeem himself to some extent with an impeccable defense of the lead in Spielberg, against the assault from the Australian, a miniature Terminator, reliable and composed. The battle between the two drivers of the papaya-colored team had several exchanges, divided into two waves, separated by pit stops. Initially, Piastri tried to overtake Norris three times before the pit stop window opened. The first to change tires was the Briton, doing so three laps before his teammate. This gap temporarily separated them on the track, sending them to their respective corners and leaving the ultimate battle for later.

The gap of more than six seconds between the leader (Norris) and his sole pursuer (Piastri) diminished as the laps progressed; subtly at first, until the second tire change, and much more rapidly thereafter. With new tires, the boy from Melbourne displayed his inner pitbull, the tenacity that leads him to bite and not let go of his target, regardless of whether they wear the same colors. The nearly four seconds that separated the two before the second pit stop shrank to less than half (1.8 seconds) when the moment of truth arrived. This was a significant difference but not enough to counteract the advantage McLaren had created from the pit wall, thanks to a strategy aimed at avoiding a self-destructive battle like the one seen in Montreal.

McLaren’s history is dotted with incidents among teammates, such as the fireworks between Senna and Prost in the 1990s; and more recently, the clashes between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the mid-2000s, which ended with the Oviedo driver leaving the team. In this case, the initial clashes between Norris and Piastri prompted the bosses to intervene, ensuring they did not compromise the clear superiority provided by the sharpest car on the grid. This victory is the third of the season for the current world runner-up, capping off a great weekend built on a spectacular pole position, with over half a second of advantage. “It’s not bad that my old self still comes out every now and then,” Norris said on Saturday, after executing that dizzying lap that put him at the front of the grid. His supposed emotional vulnerability contrasts with the chilling composure of his teammate, with whom he forms the most attractive duo of all.

The fourth double podium for the Woking (Britain) team, combined with Max Verstappen’s retirement in the first lap after being struck by Kimi Antonelli, leaves a very favorable outlook for the 17 years after the last time (2008) the drivers’ title was displayed at the Technology Centre. Charles Leclerc secured third place in a race where his only hope was that the first two would take each other out, while Fernando Alonso finished seventh and Carlos Sainz was unable to start due to a series of misfortunes that befell his Williams on the grid.