Lando Norris would pass a three-time world champion in the list of McLaren’s greatest-ever drivers if he wins the championship this season.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are engaged in a fight to become McLaren’s first world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. It’s set up to be a teammate battle for the ages between the Brit and the Aussie.
Norris has waited for this opportunity for years. He’s shown promise since his arrival in Formula One in 2017, and won his first race last season. 2024 was his first year with a rapid car, which allowed him to take his first victory and contend for the title.
Red Bull and Max Verstappen beat him last year, but this season is his best chance.
McLaren has been home to some of the greatest drivers in F1 history. Norris seeks to become one of them, but needs to overcome the threat of Piastri in order to do so. And if the Brit wins the title, he can leapfrog a three-time title winner in the list of McLaren’s greatest-ever drivers.
Lando Norris would pass Niki Lauda in the list of McLaren’s greatest-ever drivers
Niki Lauda is one of the greatest drivers to have ever sat behind the wheel in F1. He has three world championships to his name and survived a near-fatal crash, only to return six weeks later and challenge for the title.
Norris can pass him in the list of McLaren’s best-ever drivers this season, however. The bulk of Lauda’s success came with Ferrari, where he won two of his championships. After retiring in 1979, Lauda returned to the sport in ‘82 with McLaren.
In 1984, he won the championship. Lauda beat future legend Alain Prost by half a point, which remains the narrowest margin of victory in an F1 championship in the sport’s history.
The now three-time world champion retired for the final time a year later. He won eight races and a championship with the team, setting the stage for McLaren to dominate the next 15 years of F1.
Norris, meanwhile, has already surpassed Lauda’s McLaren win tally. Yes, there are more races in today’s F1, but Lauda’s teammate Prost snatched countless wins from the Austrian to take over as the number-one driver in the team.
With a championship, Norris would have as many titles and more wins with McLaren than Lauda. He’d become the eighth driver to have won the Drivers’ championship in McLaren’s esteemed history. Only four drivers, Hamilton, Prost, Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen would have more for the team.
Fireworks expected between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the second half of the season
With legendary status on the line and nothing between them, the gloves are about to come off between these two teammates.
The first signs came at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where Piastri said he didn’t care about going for the race win, he only wanted to beat Norris. Norris, executing a daring one-stop strategy, won the race in a battle for the lead in the closing laps.
Piastri looked to have the mental edge in the championship battle, which he’s led for much of the season. But three wins in his last four races have brought Norris right back into the fray. Nine points separate the McLaren drivers at the summer break.
| Position | Drivers' Championship | Points |
| 1 | Oscar Piastri | 284 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | 275 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | 187 |
McLaren have all but wrapped up the Constructors’ title. All that’s left to decide is the Drivers’, and the team are letting them scrap it out.
Piastri compared himself to Prost during the summer break. Will Norris and Piastri replicate the rivalry between Prost and Senna on the back end of this season?