Will Piastri vs Norris 2025 Formula 1 title fight turn nasty?

That 'clash' came in Canada, when Norris hit the back of Piastri during a fierce scrap, forcing the Briton to retire while the Australian went on to score 12 points for P4.

This harmony between title-contending teammates is a rarity in F1 history, where intra-team rivalries have often turned toxic – from Prost-Senna and Mansell-Piquet to Hamilton-Alonso and Hamilton-Rosberg. But Juan Pablo Montoya is convinced the civility, at modern-day McLaren, will not last through the remaining 10 rounds.

Indeed, there was a moment during the race in Budapest where Piastri dive-bombed into Turn 1 and nearly tagged his teammate during their battle for the lead. But there was no contact. Norris stayed ahead, Piastro just lost time.

However, motorsport veteran and seven-time GP winner, Montoya, believes the close F1 championship fight will inevitably boil over: “The way that McLaren is running with the two guys and they are in harmony in the team, would you bring Max [Verstappen] as a disruption to that team?

"The McLaren group is in a groove, it's peace and love and everybody's happy and we're best friends and we hold hands when we go racing together. But if I was a betting person, there's going to be an explosion at McLaren at some stage."

“It is a world championship they are fighting for," Montoya pointed out. "When was the last time McLaren had a world champion? 2008 with Lewis. They have the Constructors in the bag. And they want to let the drivers race. And they want to see fair racing.

"The big thing about McLaren of today is that they give their drivers freedom and they are being very fair in the way they are managing them. Back in the day when I was there, it was all very controlling.”

Montoya warns that once the points gap tightens, clean racing will be replaced by ruthless moves: “The question for me is sooner or later they are going to end up crashing. You are going to get to the situation where because they are so close in points every position will matter.

"It will get to the point where you will be better off crashing your team-mate rather than losing the points to win a Championship. “When we come to the last few races, and one guy is five points ahead and he passes you, and it means a swing in points, somebody is going to do something crazy.

"It doesn’t matter how good the relationship is or might be, this is one rare opportunity that they will have of being World Champion. If the regulations were the same next year, I think the approach might be different.

"But with the new regulations being so dramatically different, and there's no guarantee that the car is going to be competitive next year, this might be the only chance for them in their careers to be a F1 world champion," said the 49-year-old Colombian.

Asked who will be the World Champion at the end of 2025, Montoya said: “I think Lando. In my house everybody wants Oscar, but I want Lando. I like Lando. I like both of them. I get on well with both. I think Lando's a little quicker, and he’s developed some real steel recently.

"What Lando did in Hungary made me sure that Lando's going to win. Oscar had him covered all weekend. Oscar was better on Friday. Going into qualifying, Oscar had the weekend in his hands. And Lando really stepped up through the race. He really stepped up and did the job in the race. He made the different strategy work. Everything is coming together.”

Montoya added that neither driver can afford to relax: “When you're behind, it's easy to come up and do what he's done right now. And you start seeing excitement and screaming for him. Oscar’s coolness has dropped a little bit. But it means Oscar is going to work his butt off through this.

"Lando cannot relax and Oscar needs to step up. So, it's going to get to a point where, whether it's intentional or not, they're going to come together. Every point is going to matter. Every pass that you don't make, every dive bomb that you don't make, is points that you gave away," explained Montoya.

Piastri leads the 2025 F1 Championship standings by nine points over Norris, with rivals nowhere in sight ahead of Round 15 of 24, the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort later this month.