David Coulthard is relishing the combat between McLaren workforce mates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to this point 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 factors – equal to a sixth-place end – in the Drivers’ Championship standings, having received 5 races to his workforce mate’s 4.
Forward of the marketing campaign resuming at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Coulthard praised Piastri for holding the sting however likened the scenario to Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s pulsating scrap 4 years in the past.
“If it was half a World Championship, Oscar’s received,” said Coulthard, who made 246 begins within the prime echelon, scoring 13 wins, 62 podiums and greater than 500 factors.
“I don’t suppose anybody might say he hasn’t deserved to be main – he was main earlier than [the McLarens] came together in Canada. But when Lando turns it round within the second half of the season, he’s doing it towards somebody that’s a proficient third 12 months F1 driver.
“It’s a bit like 2021, the place some persons are nonetheless so vocal about what occurred… just one driver might win. Each Max and Lewis drove like World Champions that 12 months, however solely one in every of them might have the title.”
Referencing how the intra-team combat has been managed to this point, Coulthard continued: “I believe McLaren have dealt with it rather well. I believe each their drivers are on the tamer aspect of animal than the wilder aspect of animal, in order that most likely makes it a bit bit simpler.
“However this is also their solely probability to win a world title; we don’t know what 2026 brings, we don’t know what the longer term is, so that you’ve acquired to grab the second.
“That’s why I’m actually impressed with how Oscar has stepped up this 12 months. However Lando’s response over the past two races is exhibiting his high quality as properly. I believe it’s going to be a type of issues the place each of them deserve it, however just one can get it.”
Coulthard added that he had lengthy been braced for the aforementioned conflict between Norris and Piastri in Canada, drawing on his personal expertise alongside Hakkinen at McLaren from 1996 to 2001, which included a number of flashpoints.
“I predicted the approaching collectively, as a result of I’ve been there and carried out that – I crashed into Mika, he crashed into me,” mentioned the Scot, who memorably collected his workforce mate on the first lap of the 1999 Austrian Grand Prix.
“It’s all the time going to be the case that regardless of how tight a workforce is, after you have the depth of each drivers having an opportunity to win, then that’s going to get increasingly more sophisticated.”
Whereas McLaren are in a robust place in each championships, Coulthard has not but dominated out Verstappen and Pink Bull getting again within the combine – the Dutchman sitting 69 factors adrift of Piastri as issues stand.
“You’ll be able to’t rule Max out,” Coulthard argued, whereas lauding Verstappen’s stellar Qualifying effort at Silverstone final day trip. “I believe for the championship, everyone knows it’s going to take an improve to unlock some efficiency.
“The place Pink Bull are proper now, and in the event that they had been frozen, it’s troublesome to think about that the second half of the season circuits are out of the blue going to swimsuit the Pink Bull higher than the primary half.
“It’ll take an improve from Pink Bull to provide him the consistency. Are they able to doing it? Completely. Have they carried out it earlier than? Sure. Is Max distinctive? Completely.”
Learn extra from Coulthard and a number of other different former F1 stars in our mid-season legends review.
