The Formula One title fight is tightening, and McLaren’s golden mantra – “Let ’em race” – is starting to look more like a manual than a motto.
At Monza, the team’s call for Oscar Piastri to surrender second place to Lando Norris after a sluggish pit stop exposed the cracks in that philosophy, sparking questions over how far fairness can stretch on track.
Now, with the constructors’ crown within reach in Baku – potentially sealed with seven races still to run – the Norris-Piastri duel is poised to shift from subplot to McLaren’s defining storyline.
McLaren leads by 337 points and takes the title if one driver wins and the other finishes second or third, which would end the faint mathematical chances of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.
It’s a sharp contrast to last year, when McLaren held off Ferrari in the final race of the season to win the constructors’ title for the first time in 26 years.
“It’s a pretty remarkable position that we’re in,” Piastri said. “A very proud moment for everybody and myself included.”
Was swapping the cars in Italy the best way for McLaren to make up for a team mistake beyond Norris’ control? Or was Piastri punished for something that’s “just part of racing,” as he suggested over the radio?
The Monza decision has prompted yet more discussion at McLaren about the best way to race.
“We’ve again had a lot of discussions about how we want to go racing and a lot of that is to stay for us,” Piastri said, adding that giving away the details could allow rival teams to exploit McLaren’s approach. “I do think we have enough freedom to control our own destiny in the championship.”
That call left Piastri with a lead of 31 points, instead of 37. Expect to hear a lot more about it at the end of the season if that six-point swing decides the title.
“You can’t plan for every single scenario that’s going to happen, but I think we’re very aligned,” Piastri said. “Ultimately I respect the team’s decisions and trust that they’ll certainly do their best to make the right ones.”
Azerbaijan is a place where team rivalry has boiled over before.
In 2018, it was where up-and-coming challenger Max Verstappen collided with established contender Daniel Ricciardo. It forced Red Bull into a rethink of its “no team orders” approach – not dissimilar to McLaren’s “let ’em race” – and set the two drivers on opposite trajectories.
Ricciardo was on the podium only once more that season, lost out to Verstappen by 79 points and left the team at the end of 2018. Verstappen hasn’t had a teammate who’s challenged him since.
The gap between him and Yuki Tsunoda is vast – 230 points to 12.
Red Bull heads into Azerbaijan widely expected to promote Isack Hadjar, whose podium finish in the Netherlands was an exclamation point in a strong rookie season, to Tsunoda’s seat for 2026.
