Piastri claimed that he and Norris want to replicate 2007

On the back of McLaren's dominant start to the 2025 F1 season, Oscar Piastri joked that he and his team-mate Lando Norris could replicate the 2007 season when McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were engaged in a fierce intra-team rivalry.

McLaren struggled to beat their rivals over a single qualifying lap during last weekend's Miami Grand Prix, but their MCL39 came alive in race trim, showing truly dominant performance.

Lando Norris got a great start on Sunday and was challenging Max Verstappen into the first couple of corners, but the Dutchman defended his lead hard, and the Briton was forced to run wide at Turn 2, losing four places and dropping back to sixth.

However, he managed to quickly regain the places he lost at the start, albeit he needed to fight hard against Verstappen, who was eager to hold onto his position.

By the time he picked off Verstappen, Oscar Piastri had built a huge gap and was imperious. Although Norris was constantly closing the gap to his team-mate in the remainder of the race, Piastri’s lead proved too big an advantage to overhaul.

The Melbourne-born driver now finds himself atop of the drivers' standings, sitting on 131 points while Norris is second 16 points adrift.

When asked if things could get more heated as the season is progressing, Piastri noted: "We said that we’re trying to repeat 2007. We clearly know that we have our strengths.

"It’s always been close between us. It’s going to be a good battle. There will be weekends where Lando is stronger, and weekends where I am stronger.”

“We’re very aware of the fact that we want this success for as long as we’re at McLaren, which is a very long time for both of us. We’re aware there’s going to be a fight.

"We both want to become World Champion, obviously. But we don’t just want one opportunity at this success. We want it for the next however many years, and that’s an important and an easy thing to keep in mind for us and the whole team.”

Explaining the situation, Piastri conceded that it is sometimes difficult for a driver to beat his own team-mate as the cars are identical and teams usually share setup data and strategy approaches between its drivers.

“We know pretty much exactly how one another drives. We know our strong points, maybe some of our weaker points. So from that side you have more information, but it goes both ways. We both know we’ve got the same car, so that removes one factor.”

“But there are other complications with having the same car. You can have the same strengths and weaknesses on track. With how difficult it is to follow cars, nine times out of 10, whoever’s in front at the start is probably going to be in front at the end.

"So it’s difficult like that. Then there’s the pit strategies and whatever that become a factor when you’re in the same team. There are positives and negatives.”