McLaren Hasn't Had A Stable Driver Lineup In 25 Seasons, Secures Piastri And Norris Through At Least 2028

McLaren won its first Formula 1 World Constructors' Championship since 1998 last year with driver pairing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. As of Wednesday morning, with Piastri's pre-season contract extension until at least the end of the 2027 season, the team has secured this championship-winning driver pairing for at least the next three seasons. Norris and Piastri have been paired together since Piastri joined the team in 2023, giving them a minimum of five seasons together by the time their commitments come to a close. McLaren hasn't had this kind of steady and reliable driving talent since long-serving champ Mika Häkkinen (paired with David Coulthard for six seasons) left F1 after the 2001 season. 

There is something to be said for maintaining a steady hand when you've got a pair of drivers who work well together and are both capable of winning in the right machinery. Piastri may not have all of Norris' outright speed, but he's a reliable driver who can score points when needed. Norris netted four wins for McLaren in 2024, while Piastri won two Grands Prix. Extending Piastri's contract just makes too much sense, as the team doesn't want thinking about contracts or perhaps being courted by another team to distract him from the job of going fast. 

Across 2024 McLaren acted under the "Papaya Rules" which was a thinly veiled code word which allowed drivers Norris and Piastri to race each other for position, but they had to be clean about it. This was basically a message to Lando Norris that the team wouldn't artificially slow Piastri down in order to keep him behind Lando or use his on-track presence to enhance Lando's race. The team modified how it responded to the season as Norris became the only driver who could potentially hold up to Red Bull's dominant Max Verstappen on points, and began pushing Piastri to assist his teammate in their championship push. If they'd committed to this practice from race one, they might have been able to push Lando to his first driver's championship. As it was, however, Max went on to grab his fourth in a row. 

All of the best dynasties in racing place a single driver on the point as their primary focus with their teammate playing support. Ferrari did this with Michael Schumacher and it upended every record book the series had ever written. Mercedes supported Lewis Hamilton through this, to a lesser extent, and Red Bull is doing it right now with Max at the helm. In order for McLaren to repeat as constructors' champions, it will need to push both drivers to perform at their best, but pushing one driver to the point will help gain every valuable point in the season. That neither driver has to worry about their contract is a great start to a potentially great season. McLaren looked fastest in pre-season testing, but there's a long way to go and a lot of miles to race between here and the end of the season at Abu Dhabi in early December. 

The F1 season begins this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix. We won't really know how fast McLaren is until we see all the cars compete on track. It's been a short off-season, but I'm ready to have my heart broken by agonizingly boring and processional racing again. Let's go!