McLaren has dominated the 2025 season with both drivers gunning to become the world champion. The championship battle looks to be between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, with the former leading by just 8 points at the halfway stage of the season.
McLaren is also dominating the constructors’ championship, leading second-placed Ferrari by 238 points. The papaya team has had no drivers on the podium on one occasion, in Canada, when their drivers collided.
Despite dominating the season so far, the MCL39 has had weaknesses, with both drivers complaining that the car is tricky. Lando Norris has struggled more, especially in qualifying, leaving him out of contention for the race win. However, Piastri has also had problems with his McLaren.
Oscar Piastri says his McLaren can be unpredictable
Oscar Piastri is leading the way in the championship after winning five of the opening twelve races. However, the Australian has admitted he still has problems with his car. The 24-year-old opened up to The Race about his struggles.
Piastri admitted: “There’s definitely things from just the car set-up and balance point of view that I try to avoid. And some things I struggle with more than others on how I like the car to behave. But they’ve always been kind of rectifiable issues if we’ve had them in a weekend.
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“So I think from the car side of things, yes, there are things we have to be a bit careful of. The sometimes unpredictable nature of the car is not always the most pleasant. But we’ve done a very good job of dialing that out. And that was essentially my biggest complaint at the start of the year.”
Despite his struggles, Piastri is more confident in the car than his championship rival and teammate Lando Norris. Norris put himself on the back foot with poor qualifying sessions in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Canada. This has given Piastri that small margin of breathing space he needs to take into the second half of the season.
Oscar Piastri praises the MCL39
McLaren had the quickest car for large portions of last season. They used their advantage from the 2024 Miami GP to win the constructors’ championship, the team’s first since 1998. The Woking-based team looks likely to retain their title, as Oscar Piastri praises this season’s challenger, but doesn’t believe much has changed from last season’s car.
The Australian continued: “This year’s car is obviously incredibly quick, and I think we’ve done a good job of making it easier to extract all of that potential out of it. When you have a quicker car, more often than not it’s a better-behaved car. And we have considerably made the car firstly quicker, but also more in the direction that I think both of us want, and certainly that I want, in the way it behaves.
“I don’t think the car is that different from last year in the way it behaves. There are some things that are different, but a lot of it is still the same. A lot of it is dictated by just how the downforce is generated, the tyres that we have.”
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The second half of this season will see which McLaren driver has the right mindset to take the title. Max Verstappen is 69 points behind, but he can’t be fully ruled out just yet. Piastro has the upper hand going into the business end of the season, but will he hang on to take his maiden title? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
