Is McLaren now Norris' team?

Much was said and written about the dynamic within McLaren as there was this feeling that the team was backing Norris for the Title rather than Piastri while hiding behind the fairness of Papaya Rules, a feeling which was amplified by the team's actions in Monza when the ordered the Australian to let the Briton, who suffered from a bad pitstop, pass.

McLaren have actually dug themselves into this hole long before with team orders given to Norris in Hungary back in 2024 to allow Piastri by. Piastri started on pole at the time and was leading but the team strategy meant the order of their drivers was reversed.

Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert insists McLaren have tried to be as fair as possible with their drivers while also having reservations on their approach.

"They're trying to make it fair," he said. "I was never a fan of what happened in Hungary last year when Lando got a better strategy call just because of the way the race was developing. At that time, he got ahead of Oscar, but they had an agreement.

"They could go into turn one first, and that's your your race win. But then racing things don't always go to plan. It didn't go to plan. But when Lando got the lead, they said, 'well, we've agreed it, so let him go, let him pass and let him win the race'.

"But then, after what happened in Holland, which was very unfortunate, it's part of racing, engine failure for Lando, they then swapped the places in Monza as well, which wasn't very fair on Oscar, because racing isn't always fair.

"Racing is not something that you should just get given extra sort of points and team orders to swap places just because we feel a little bit guilty of what happens in the previous race.

"So that's the only part of it, don't get involved with that. Just let it happen in a natural way. And fundamentally, you're still going to win the Constructors' [Champioship], and you're probably still going to win the Drivers' [Championship] anyway, but just let the drivers get on with it.

Piastri started the 2025 F1 season with the apparent upper hand over Norris, but then his season began to unravel, his performance dropping with his crash in the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix considered as a point after which he fell back significantly.

Again there were talks that McLaren provide Norris with a totally different front suspension which helped him improve sometime around midseason which was pointed out to Herbert.

He said: "I think it's like a driver has always got to work for himself. A driver has always got to find a way of trying to get something that works for him.

"Now, if Lando and his and his engineer Will Joseph, were able to find a way of making him more comfortable in the car, well, that's what it's all about, and it did favor him, but that's only favoring him in his feeling in the car and his performance on the race track.

"Is there a problem with that making him better? That's the way that's the way it works. You're always hunting to make the car work for you. You're not making it work for your teammate. You're making it work for you.

"So I've heard that he [Piastri] felt that the team was favoring Lando. I'm not quite sure that's the way it works," the three-time race winner maintained.

"I think it was a lot to do with what happened in Monza," Herbert said when asked why he reckoned Piastri's form dropped. "He definitely wasn't happy with that. He said that's not racing, and he's right. That wasn't racing, and it wasn't fair.

"Points were taken away from him. But then I think there was definitely the momentum that came from the performances of Lando, and that will put you under pressure. You're only human. Yes, he's very cool and very calm, and everybody thinks he's never going to be sort of his feathers are going to get ruffled, but I think it does show, even with his comments, they were a little bit more feisty than what we'd heard before.

"It's not what you had been hearing from Oscar, because he was always very, very calm. That's always a bit of frustration. I think that comes out because you're just a little bit uncomfortable in the situation you find yourself in at the time.

"Why did his performances go off? I don't know, he's the only one who can be honest and understand exactly what was going on. But it just seemed as if it was Lando, who was the one who was able to come out on top from that point of view.

"So I think it was just momentum swapped for a driver who found a setup that was working for him and Oscar, obviously found it for whatever reason more difficult, dropped off in such a dramatic fashion.

"I think it just shows that when pressure is put on, put on you as a driver in the situation, he found himself which was leading the Championship, and then suddenly everybody around him, including Max [Verstappen], he started to take points away from you.

"Then I think you do over try overthink it. Sometimes you see what's happening on the garage on the other side, and that affects you as well. So it's a mental, a very, very strong mental game that needs to come into play, and I that's where I see Max as being mighty strong on the mental side," he explained.

Both Norris and McLaren CEO Zak Brown claimed that Piastri will be a future F1 Champion, a sentiment many in the sport share.

But with Norris winning first for McLaren, will it now become his team? Or will Piastri be given the chance to win his maiden Title win a Papaya car?

When this question was asked to Herbert, he responded: "I don't think I class it [McLaren] as Lando's team at the moment, his personality is not like a Max or Michael [Schumacher], where they will try and take that team to be their own.

"It is for a driver to try and lead," he added of Piastri. "When you're in that scenario, when you are the leading driver in many, many respects, and yet you've got to be able to use that to your advantage. And it didn't quite work out for him this year.

"But I agree with with Zak and many other people that think he has got more than enough talent to be able to win a Championship with McLaren.

"I think it's all down to what happens next season," the 61-year-old claimed. "That will be the only real idea that will be quite clear to us, and I think clear to the drivers, that is it the right place to be? Because I presume, I'm guessing, that one team is going to come out much, much stronger than everybody else.

"It's rumored to be Mercedes, we don't know. We're going to have to wait and see if it is McLaren, then it is definitely Piastri's opportunity of winning his first World Championship. He got very, very close this time around. He will learn from all the negative experiences that he's had this year.

"And to be honest, sometimes a negative season becomes a very, very very powerful thing in the future, and I think that will be definitely beneficial for Oscar," Herbert concluded.