Has McLaren Just Birthed a Sequel to Lewis Hamilton-Nico Rosberg Rivalry With Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri?

Last Sunday gave us the seventh race winner of this season. For context, the F1 season has not seen seven winners in the past couple of years combined! The season has ignited fans’ excitement; now it is anyone’s game. The sudden rise of McLaren has put them on their way to dethrone reigning champions Red Bull. However, many argue that the team’s mindset is still stuck in the midfield. And their loose handling of drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri is not going to bode well and may even give rise to new age Lewis Hamilton-Nico Rosberg rivalry. Let us understand why.

What happened between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg?

What started as the best friendship turned into such intense rivalry that it is being quoted even 8 years after Rosberg quit F1. Lewis and Nico became best friends when they began Karting together. They became teammates at Mercedes in 2013 and it was like a dream come true. It was a shared dream that two youngsters saw and realized after a few years. But only one can stand at the top of the podium and competitors cannot be best friends.

When Mercedes became competitive in 2014, sparks of rivalry began flying across the garage. However, things truly blew up in Monaco GP qualifying that year. The pair were evenly matched through practice and the first two stages of qualifying. Rosberg beat Hamilton by one-tenth of a second in Q1 before the result was reversed in Q2. Rosberg was able to take provisional pole with his first run in Q3, putting in a lap of 1m15.989s to pip Hamilton by just five-hundredths of a second. But with a fresh set of super-soft tires and the track improving lap by lap, the final runs would surely provide enough time gains to swing the momentum back to Hamilton. Rosberg lost one-tenth of a second through the opening sector, while Hamilton had gained two-tenths, putting him on course to snatch the pole away.

Suddenly, Rosberg locked up as he entered Mirabeau on his final lap and went on to the escape road. Behind him, Hamilton was on a faster lap, one that would almost certainly have snatched the prize from the German and given the championship leader his fifth pole of the season in six races. But he was forced to abort his effort as the yellow flags were waved. Hamilton blamed Nico for doing it on purpose. Many blamed their already brewing animosity for the fall and if things at McLaren aren’t handled well, then this is the future that the team is heading towards.

“Every driver’s selfish and you have to be selfish in this game,”: said Lando Norris after the Hungarian GP

Last Sunday, McLaren had inadvertently handed Lando Norris the lead by pitting him before race leader Oscar Piastri at the final round of stops. This is where the issue began. Before this, Oscar had comfortably led the race from lap 1, beating his teammate and the might of Max Verstappen in the run-up to Turn 1. Towards the end, when Lando was leading and Oscar was behind him, the drivers were not at fault for their reality. They were now put in a lusty position where the former was tempted to win a second race in his career, and the Aussie wanted to win his first. The last laps saw an unexpected drama unfold and Norris began arguing on the radio, unwilling to concede the position. This left Piastri asking his team to reinstate the position that he lost due to their strategic fault.

Norris eventually agreed to the team’s request to swap places with three laps to go and let Piastri through for a maiden Grand Prix victory. The almost sad reaction of Piastri sparked a debate about whether McLaren should now pull up their socks.