McLaren’s best and worst moments from 2025 and driver head-to-heads

After wrapping up the 2025 Teams’ Championship with several races to spare, McLaren had even more reason to celebrate at the season finale as Lando Norris became World Champion for the first time. Team mate Oscar Piastri, meanwhile, had to settle for third following a close intra-team battle through the campaign. Here is the title-winning squad’s end of year report…

Best finish

Lando Norris – 1st in Australia, Monaco, Austria, Britain, Hungary, Mexico and Brazil; Oscar Piastri – 1st in China, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Miami, Spain, Belgium and Netherlands

McLaren were easily the most winningest team in 2025, with Norris and Piastri each chalking up seven Grand Prix victories apiece.

The papaya outfit were particularly dominant during the first half of the season, having seen one of their drivers stand on the top step of the podium at 11 out of 14 races prior to F1’s summer break.

While they stood equal on wins, it was Norris who ultimately beat Piastri to the Drivers’ Championship, with the Briton enjoying a strong run of form during the second half while Piastri faced a more challenging sequence.

Qualifying head-to-head

Norris 13-11 Piastri

In terms of Qualifying trim, Piastri had the edge over Norris across the opening portion of the campaign. The Australian achieved his first career pole position at Round 2 in China, and had outqualified Norris by eight to six as of Round 14.

However, Norris took the momentum later in the year, racking up three consecutive poles between Mexico City and Las Vegas en route to beating his team mate in the head-to-head scores.

Race head-to-head

Norris 13-10 Piastri

Norris also ends 2025 on top of the race day statistics against Piastri, reaching the finish line ahead of the other McLaren on 13 occasions throughout the season.

Piastri is only just behind on 10 better results, with Las Vegas not counted here due to both cars being disqualified after the rearmost skid wear was found to be below the minimum thickness required in the technical regulations.

Best moment

Where to start in a season that brought so many highlights for McLaren? The first part of the campaign delivered numerous positive moments – with Norris and Piastri responsible for the majority of race wins – but the greatest accolades came in the second half.

Becoming Teams’ Champions for a second consecutive season was a landmark moment for an outfit that spent so many years trying to climb back up to the top and recapture their glory days. To wrap this up so early in the campaign – in Singapore, still with six rounds to spare – made it all the more remarkable.

Needless to say, that achievement was made even sweeter when Norris clinched his maiden World Championship at the finale in Abu Dhabi, marking the first time that McLaren had taken home both titles since back in 1998.

Worst moment

While the above showcase the greatness experienced by McLaren in 2025, their campaign was not without its difficulties; indeed, there is more than one candidate for their worst moment, the first being Norris and Piastri’s collision in Canada that put the former – who took the blame for the incident – out of the race.

There were two more particularly tough weekends for the team in store across the season-closing triple header. At a time when all points were crucial amid the resurgence of rival Max Verstappen, it was a huge blow when both cars were disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

A good result was needed one week later in Qatar to keep the threat of the Red Bull man at bay – but a strategy misfire from McLaren saw Piastri miss out on a potential victory, with the Australian having to settle for second while Norris crossed the line in fourth.

Goals for 2026

For starters, McLaren will be hoping to carry the success they experienced this year forwards into 2026; should they win a third Teams’ Championship in a row, it would mark their strongest run since taking four back-to-back titles between 1988 and 1991.

The squad’s so-called ‘papaya rules’ – focused on giving both drivers equal opportunity to win – is an aspect that will not change, according to CEO Zak Brown. The approach has occasionally faced criticism at the times when it backfired, with Brown acknowledging that the team will take “learnings” from these moments – and ironing out such errors will perhaps form one of their key targets entering into the new campaign.

Though there may have been occasions where the ‘papaya rules’ did not work out, Norris and Piastri appear to have maintained a relatively harmonious relationship. While it was Norris who triumphed in the title fight, Piastri has set out his expectation that this will not alter their dynamics going forward.

“For me, he’s obviously had a great season this year and a deserving champion, but he’s still Lando Norris,” Piastri explained post-race in Abu Dhabi. “It’s not like he’s become Superman. So, I don’t think things will change with that.

“I’m expecting full fairness from the team and equality going forward. I don’t have any concerns that that will change at all. Clearly, Lando’s had a very strong season this year, and ultimately did a better job.”

Norris himself has previously stated that he does not believe in momentum, but it will be fascinating to see if achieving his long-awaited dream of becoming World Champion gives him an edge into the start of 2026 – a season that brings the additional challenge of navigating new technical regulations – or if Piastri can repeat his impressive form from the first half of 2025 to once again take the fight to his team mate.