McLaren F1 team 'nervous' as Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris ‘problem’ arises

Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, McLaren, British GP, Britain, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

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McLaren 'nervous' as Piastri and Norris ‘problem’ arises

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are in a championship battle with Max Verstappen

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Wednesday 22 October 2025 11:56 Updated: 16:13

A former F1 driver has pointed to a 'problem' the two McLaren drivers may have in their championship fight against Max Verstappen.

While McLaren have wrapped up the constructors' championship with ease in 2025, the team are hoping to also seal the drivers' championship, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri fighting for that title with five rounds to go.

One of them could well become McLaren's first drivers' champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008, but they will need to stave off the threat of Verstappen to do that, with the Dutchman now only 40 points behind championship leader Piastri.

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The four-time world champion has won three of the last five grands prix, and is in the kind of imperious form that made him unstoppable in 2023.

Now, former F1 racer Timo Glock has told Sky Germany that McLaren are going to have trouble competing for race wins in the remainder of 2025, not only because of Verstappen, but because of Ferrari and Mercedes' improvements.

"The whole team is nervous," he said live on air. "The problem is that there are racetracks where Mercedes suddenly appears, where Ferrari was strong. That's the problem for Oscar and Lando, that there could be other teams that take points away from them.

"For me, Max Verstappen is too dominant for anyone to put him under pressure."

Who will win the 2025 F1 championship?

With five grands prix and two sprint races to go, there are a multitude of points on offer for Verstappen to close the gap to the McLaren cars in the standings.

The United States Grand Prix storylines should have been focused on the fact that Norris managed to close the gap to Piastri in the standings to 14 points, but instead everybody is talking about Verstappen.

Being the only one of the three racers to have championship-winning experience, Verstappen is arguably now the favourite, and will be going all out to try and secure what would be a record-equalling fifth consecutive world title.

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