As 2025 draws to a close, something which has struck me this year is the way competitors appear to respect each other more these days.
This is typified by the F1 title battle this year between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. It all seems very gentlemanly, may the best man win, but still intense. I don’t know that you can say they are the best of mates, but they seem to get on. Clearly they are both competitive and are driven to beat the other one and anyone else.
Large chunks of the F1 press have been very confused by this. They almost have an expectation that being team-mates it would automatically have the hostility of the Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost days. Or the knife-edge intensity of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2016. Or in MotoGP a decade ago when Yamaha had to build a wall in the garage to prevent Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo from even seeing each other. It’s as if they are disappointed this hasn’t manifested in the Norris/Piastri fight. At least, not yet.
And let’s be clear, I love those battles too. Because I think that’s how *I* would be in that situation – angry and petulant. Wouldn’t you be? And for the media it’s obvious isn’t it? Needle sells copy, generates clicks, gets more views. But should we be disappointed?
I don’t think so. Not when there’s genuine camaraderie and respect, and yes, we do see how pissed off they are when things don’t go their way. It’s only boring when there’s no emotion at all. It’s clearly taking an emotional toll. To be able to fight tooth and nail and come out the other side as equals, I think it shows an emotional maturity and resilience that elevates them above their peers who are unable to show such control.
I just finished watching the 2024 BTCC. Yes, I am a year late, what with the 2025 season wrapping up six weeks ago. But in that fight a year ago, entering the final three races on the last day of the season, Tom Ingram and Jake Hill were tied on points. Ingram was very fast in the dry first race. Hill faster in the two wet races. In the decider, Hill raced his way through to the podium and the championship, Ingram fell away to 6th.
Immediately in parc ferme, the respect really made an impression on me. Ingram went straight to Hill’s Dad and gave him a big hug. This was in the background while their other rival, Ash Sutton who won the race, was talking on live TV to Lou Goodman and was simply gushing with praise about Jake (and Tom for that matter). The sheer level of respect between the three of them, and for Colin Turkington too, proved again that you can race hard, you can fight wheel to wheel for the win, over a tough, intense championship, and still come out of it respecting the other. I loved seeing it.
In the 2000s and 2010s pretty much the only place that it felt like you found a collegiate, yet competitive atmosphere, was IndyCar. Specifically led by the group of guys containing Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon, Bryan Herta, Tony Kanaan, who were all team-mates at Andretti for a time, but also across the general IndyCar paddock. It also manifested itself in practical jokes – remember when they wrapped Sage Karam’s new Camaro in pink to become the ‘Karamo’? You definitely had some needle between guys who didn’t like each other – look no further than Paul Tracy and Sebastien Bourdais. But on the whole I got the sense that IndyCar was a place where racing at over 220mph on ovals generated a type of bond and respect between competitors that was not present elsewhere. Certainly not in either Formula 1 or NASCAR at the time.
And yet, that side of IndyCar seems a bit lessened these days. I don’t know if that’s because there aren’t so many superspeedways and mile-and-a-half ovals these days, and more street courses and short ovals where you get your elbows out. Or maybe the Penske ‘cheat’ scandal didn’t help – I don’t think Josef Newgarden is thought of as highly as he was among his peers. Or the legal case surrounding Alex Palou and McLaren. Or maybe just the way culture has split along political lines, particularly in the US – certainly this has affected the fan experience. Or that a certain driver gets all the “woo yeah America” from the TV coverage, but other US drivers get none of that, despite being no less American. That’s got to be noticed by the Kirkwoods of the world, right?
Norris and Piastri both know McLaren hasn’t won a Drivers’ title in a long time and neither wants to be the one to throw that away, especially since the summer break when Max Verstappen has been quicker than the pair of them and all of a sudden it looks possible, if unlikely, that he could snatch it from them. And full credit to him, that’s why Max is such a great champion, and why it hurts that he drove questionably in the past when he has the talent to not need to.
Norris knows what it is to troll around in an uncompetitive McLaren, finishing outside the top 10 in points, he has lived experience of it in a way Piastri hasn’t. And of course the rules change completely next year – what if this is the last chance McLaren gets for a while?
Yes there have been times when each of them have been on the wrong side of a team call. Both have gristled at it. Which shows it matters to them. They aren’t robots, as much as the corporate team-speak may try to hide it. Speaking of which, yes, I do think McLaren have been playing it safe with the ‘Papaya Rules’ when they don’t need to be. My instinct is these are big boys and they can sort it out themselves. However, I also understand *why* McLaren are being like this. They have long memories, they see Max coming up fast, they don’t the fastest car to lose the title.
I genuinely don’t think McLaren are favouring Norris or Piastri. McLaren are trying their best and sometimes they get it wrong. That’s sport. Personally, they are trying too hard and can afford to let it go a little more. The one that grates, and certainly pisses off the Piastri fans, is the Monza swap. Norris had a slow stop which dropped him behind his team-mate, McLaren chose to invert the positions. OK a slow stop isn’t fair on Norris, but slow stops are a part of racing, penalising the guy who had a normal stop doesn’t sit right with me. I hope it turns out not to matter in the end, whichever way it goes.
That said, I’d quite like Norris to win it. He’s really stepped up since the summer break. He’s been known as a bottler in some quarters, not without merit sometimes in his career. Yet since September he’s put that to bed, I think his pass on Piastri at the start in Singapore showed that, as we come to the crunch, he wants it more. People criticised him for it, yet I know for sure those same people would’ve cheered Piastri or Verstappen had it been them making the move. And after Monza it is Piastri who has let his head drop, bottled it in a way. I think he’ll bounce back.
And that’s what ex-racers always say. Tim Harvey said as much in the BTCC coverage: they both want it, of course they do, but it’ll come down to who wants it the most in the moment. Who steps up their game and who falls back. You don’t know who it will be until that moment. Neither do the drivers themselves!
It wouldn’t surprise me if, after this season, Norris vs Piastri develops into something more. It might be a career-long rivarly. Whether that’s a healthy respectful rivalry, or something that deteriorates into dislike and worse, only time will tell.
There are three F1 GP weekends remaining. This season has gone from a dominant, controlled Piastri, to a sensational recovery by Verstappen winning 3 races out of 4, to Norris stamping his authority in Mexico and Brazil. Might it turn again in the last three? Has Piastri realised he’s about to lose it and step it up again? Is Norris, already having faced the reality of losing to Verstappen last year, determined to stop it happening again? And we know Verstappen will do anything at all times, you don’t even need to ask the question.
I hope we see a great fight. That it’s an intense one. That it stays a respectful one. That it doesn’t diminish the intensity. It’s just different. And we should celebrate it just the same.
I Watch Too Much Racing 