Norris-Piastri battle the next Prost-Senna or Piquet-Mansell epic?

“Isn’t that great if the fight between the two McLarens goes to the wire?” said Villeneuve of the Norris versus Piastri contest, the 1997 World Champion. “It’s really brilliant and when you see that at McLaren it brings back a lot of memories from the Prost-Senna era and other teams when you had Piquet and Mansell.

"There were always a lot of internal battles which were super exciting because ultimately, they have the same team, same car, the same base to work on. It’s exciting to see – no one can complain. They have the same salad .

"It’s for them to mix it to their own advantage and to their taste. That’s when it becomes super interesting. It will be interesting to see how they evolve in that direction. The fact that Mark Webber is with Piastri will be a big help. And we’ve seen that even Piastri can get penalties now. That hadn’t happened until now,” Villeneuve told Vision4Sport.

The most famous intra-team rivalry of all, the brutal Senna-Prost war at McLaren in the late 1980s, ended in bitter acrimony and multiple championship-altering clashes. But Alain Prost believes Piastri and Norris won’t fall into the same trap.

“I don’t think they’ll have the same problems we did,” Prost said during an appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. “We honestly didn’t care at all about the other drivers or the other teams.”

Prost, a four-time World Champion, sees no need for McLaren to intervene yet: “If you have a sufficient advantage over the other teams and the drivers, letting them race and fight is the best thing for the sport. If the situation becomes a little closer with another driver or team, then it will be more difficult – but it doesn’t look like it will be that way.”

After Norris’s win at Silverstone, his deficit to Piastri in the standings is just eight points, with Max Verstappen trailing well behind in third.

While comparisons with historic title rivalries are inevitable, Piastri insists there will be no repeat of the toxic scenes that characterised Senna vs Prost: “We’re never going to do anything that’s unsportsmanlike or puts the team in a bad light or puts ourselves in a bad light.

"That’s just not who Lando and I are. Of course, we want to beat each other every weekend, but we’re never going to cross that line that causes damage that can’t be repaired," insisted Piastri, now in his second full F1 season.

He stressed that the long-term vision both drivers share at McLaren helps keep tensions in check: “We don’t want just one opportunity at this. We’re both at McLaren for a very long time after this year, and we want to fight for the championship every single year. I think we both understand it’s pretty unwise to try and win one championship and bring the house down with it."

Prost revealed he played a key role in launching Piastri’s career and sees elements of his own racing style in the McLaren driver: “I know Oscar very well,. I was the one who pushed Renault to bring him into the academy a long time ago – they didn’t want to do it.”

“He’s a special driver. I like the way he operates, which is a little like me – he thinks in the moment to make the right overtaking manoeuvre and to be a little more cunning. You know I like him as a driver," added the four time F1 World Champion.

The rivalry may intensify as the title fight unfolds, but for now, McLaren appear to have a balanced, high-performing duo that is being compared with some of F1’s most legendary teammate clashes – for all the right reasons.

Ahead of the second half of the season, Round 15 in Belgium this weekend, Piastri leads the 2025 F1 Drovers' standings by eight points over Piastri. McLaren are cleaning up in the Constructors' championship and are likely to seal their second successive title long before the season ends.