McLaren is unanimously being labeled the title favorites for the 2025 season after winning their first constructors’ title since 1998 last year. Oscar Piastri, who did a decent job for McLaren last year, is the first Australian to be touted as one of the probable challengers for the title since Daniel Ricciardo in 2014.
What keeps Piastri in line for the ultimate F1 glory is McLaren’s insistence to not impose team orders on their drivers. McLaren CEO Zak Brown in a recent interview confirmed, “Both drivers are going to fight for the championship.”
Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris is being seen as the de-facto leader at McLaren due to his experience and better race craft currently.
However, with the title opportunity right in front of the Aussie, he insists that not going all-in would be a mistake.
“I’m definitely going into this year with the aim and preparation for trying to challenge for a championship and trying to challenge for both championships,” said Piastri to SkySports. “So, you know, I think with the success we had last year, it would be silly to try and prepare for anything less.”
Piastri realizes that McLaren might be the favorites, but the competition is severe. At the end of the last season, McLaren barely survived Ferrari’s challenge for the world title, but the 23-year-old is also confident about McLaren’s driving strength.
“You know, we know we’re going to have a lot of tough competition this year. But, you know, we proved last year that we’re a team to be reckoned with and, yeah, the preparation is definitely with that championship in mind.”
On Thursday, McLaren released its livery for the 2025 season. The papaya and black camouflage livery looked impressive. Team boss Andrea Stella confirmed that the same livery will be used at Bahrain’s pre-season testing.
Will McLaren keep to their strengths?
McLaren’s last year’s car had a sizeable advantage over others in the latter half of the season. Piastri was asked whether McLaren would keep the car specs the same or are there any changes.
The Australian replied that his team hasn’t ‘stood still’, meaning there would be some changes which would be intended to improve this season’s performance. Stella, speaking on the livery change, confirmed McLaren has made “aggressive development of the car over the winter,” as reported by The Race.
McLaren’s one-off camouflage livery is unreal pic.twitter.com/iZtQELpdOl
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) February 13, 2025
McLaren doesn’t want to remain complacent and be overpowered by Ferrari, Red Bull, or Mercedes in the development battle. After all, Ferrari has already announced that most of their car would be different than 2024, and so McLaren cannot afford to “stand still“, as Piastri stated in his recent interview.
