David Coulthard is relishing the fight between McLaren team mates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris so far this season, making comparisons to the 2021 title race and the years he spent alongside Mika Hakkinen at McLaren.
After 12 of 24 scheduled Grands Prix, Piastri leads Norris by the slender margin of eight points – equivalent to a sixth-place finish – in the Drivers’ Championship standings, having won five races to his team mate’s four.
Ahead of the campaign resuming at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Coulthard praised Piastri for holding the edge but likened the situation to Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s pulsating scrap four years ago.
“If it was half a World Championship, Oscar’s won,” stated Coulthard, who made 246 starts in the top echelon, scoring 13 wins, 62 podiums and more than 500 points.
“I don’t think anyone could say he hasn’t deserved to be leading – he was leading before [the McLarens] came together in Canada. But if Lando turns it around in the second half of the season, he’s doing it against someone that’s a talented third year F1 driver.
“It’s a bit like 2021, where some people are still so vocal about what happened… only one driver could win. Both Max and Lewis drove like World Champions that year, but only one of them could have the title.”
Referencing how the intra-team fight has been managed so far, Coulthard continued: “I think McLaren have handled it really well. I think both their drivers are on the tamer side of animal than the wilder side of animal, so that probably makes it a little bit easier.
“But this could also be their only chance to win a world title; we don’t know what 2026 brings, we don’t know what the future is, so you’ve got to seize the moment.
“That’s why I’m really impressed with how Oscar has stepped up this year. But Lando’s response over the last two races is showing his quality as well. I think it’s going to be one of those things where both of them deserve it, but only one can get it.”
Coulthard added that he had long been braced for the aforementioned clash between Norris and Piastri in Canada, drawing on his own experience alongside Hakkinen at McLaren from 1996 to 2001, which included several flashpoints.
“I predicted the coming together, because I’ve been there and done that – I crashed into Mika, he crashed into me,” said the Scot, who memorably collected his team mate on the first lap of the 1999 Austrian Grand Prix.
“It’s always going to be the case that no matter how tight a team is, once you have the intensity of both drivers having a chance to win, then that’s going to get more and more complicated.”
While McLaren are in a strong position in both championships, Coulthard has not yet ruled out Verstappen and Red Bull getting back in the mix – the Dutchman sitting 69 points adrift of Piastri as things stand.
“You can’t rule Max out,” Coulthard argued, while lauding Verstappen’s stellar Qualifying effort at Silverstone last time out. “I think for the championship, we all know it’s going to take an upgrade to unlock some performance.
“Where Red Bull are right now, and if they were frozen, it’s difficult to imagine that the second half of the season circuits are suddenly going to suit the Red Bull better than the first half.
“It will take an upgrade from Red Bull to give him the consistency. Are they capable of doing it? Absolutely. Have they done it before? Yes. Is Max exceptional? Absolutely.”
Read more from Coulthard and several other former F1 stars in our mid-season legends review.
.webp?ssl=1 "The state of play at McLaren after three rounds of the 2026 season")
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