Tough McLaren talks that ‘needed to happen’ as double header set to define title race — Burning Qs

The Austrian Grand Prix is the first leg of a double-header with Great Britain that could prove pivotal to the 2025 season.

Oscar Piastri leads the championship by 22 points after benefiting from teammate Lando Norris’s self-destructive crash in Canada, but the Red Bull Racing is one of the Briton’s favourite circuits, and he’s confident he can banish some of his massing demons and get his season back on track.

McLaren’s rivals also harbour hope that their last rolls of the development dice can close the gap. After Mercedes and Red Bull Racing both beat McLaren to the podium in Canada, both are optimistic — along with Ferrari — that upgrades could close their deficits before all teams turn their focus fully to 2026.

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George Russell is hoping that when Mercedes finally considers its 2026 prospects it’ll finally put pen to paper on his new contract, with the clock ticking as the German marque weighs up its options.

There’s much still to be decided in the thick of the European season.

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WILL McLAREN BE ‘STRONGER’ AFTER CANADA CRASH?

It’s been almost a fortnight since Lando Norris crashed into teammate Oscar Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix, but his Montreal error was the biggest talking point in the Austria paddock.

The Briton had owned up to his mistake immediately, but his retirement from the race and Piastri’s lucky escape without serious damage meant McLaren was always going to have to address it head-on with so much of the season still to go and with the title fight still percolating between its drivers.

Team principal Andrea Stella forecast “tough” conversations as he left the Montreal paddock that would put the onus on Norris to respond positively.

Speaking in Austria, a confident Norris said that in fact the team had emerged stronger from the crash.

“There have been a good amount of talks,” Norris said, per ESPN. “Of course not the most joyful conversations, but conversations that needed to be had clearly and obviously [by] us as a team, because it’s not just about myself; it is how we perform as a team, and we all know what rule number one was and continues and will always be.”

Norris gave little away about the content of those conversations but emphasised accountability for his mistake was paramount to the team moving forward together.

“I think many things have come out stronger than I would say they were prior to the weekend, which you might not expect, but I think is a good outcome,” he said.

“Me owning up, me taking accountability for what happened and responsibility for what happened, I think sets a good example for us as a team.

“Between the trust and the honesty I think that Oscar and I have for one another, it’s important that we keep it up, we stay strong as a team, because we don’t want to have the downfall that we know many other teams have had in the past.

“We want to race each other fair and hard and on the limit and not have a repeat of what happened last time out, and that takes both of us, even though Canada was on me.

“From a mentality point of view, from a constructive point of view, I think that’s why it was positive.”

While Norris was interrogated over the crash, Piastri swatted away inquiries, refusing to buy into any controversy.

“The incident in Canada didn’t warrant any big discussions or big decisions,” he said. “It was a misjudgment from Lando that he admitted to and apologised for immediately.

“I don’t think it needed anything else. We knew going into this year that it was probably going to be a close fight between Lando and I with a championship at stake, so it’s no surprise to anyone that we’re kind of in this scenario now.

He said there would be no changes to the way he and Norris engaged each other on track.

“Same as always,” he said. “What happened in Canada wasn’t ideal, but we’re still free to race, still fighting for a championship each. [We] keep going racing and make sure that we don’t come into contact again.”

But you can bet the pulse will quicken the next time the two orange cars meet on track — the only true test of the team’s resolve.

CAN CAR CHANGES GET NORRIS BACK ON TERMS?

The crash left Norris 22 points adrift of Piastri in the title fight, a 45-point turnaround after having taken a 23-point lead over the Australian at the first race of the season in Melbourne.

It’s been practically one-way traffic since then, with Piastri outscoring his teammate by an average of five points per weekend.

But while the scoreline is indicative of form, it’s not representative of the drivers’ relative speed, on which count they’re much more closely matched.

Errors from Norris have been the chief contributor to the gap.

“I’ve been making more mistakes and I’ve been behind,” Norris admitted, per the BBC. “That’s been clear.

“It’s very close between us. Oscar’s certainly been a bit more comfortable than I have this season.”

Part of Norris’s problem has been his struggles to adapt to this year’s McLaren, which is faster than its predecessor but gives its drivers less front-end feedback.

Norris, whose driving style more aggressively loads up the front axle, has found himself more frequently caught out by the unresponsiveness. Piastri’s smoother style is relatively less negative affected.

McLaren is aware of the issue and brought new front suspension components to Canada in response. But Circuit Gilles Villeneuve wasn’t a great test of the new suspension, being dominated by traction and braking. Austria, which is higher speed with a bigger range of corner profiles, could pay greater dividends.

“It’s more something to try and give me a better feeling rather than to unlock any more performance from the car, but hopefully a better feeling can in some way unlock performance,” he said. “Another weekend for us to judge that and for me to get a feeling on it in a more normal track compared to Canada.”

Austria is also a circuit at which Norris has always gone well. The Briton is a regular podium getter in Spielberg and was in contention for victory last year before his crash with Max Verstappen.

“If there is any track that I kind of would say I would go to, to give myself the best feeling and make myself most comfortable, it’s probably here, just from my stats, from my enjoyment of the circuit and some of the memories that I’ve had here as well, so a good one,” he said.

The stars should be aligned for Norris to make a statement this weekend — and there’s never been a more important time for him to do so too.

WHOSE UPGRADES WILL MAKE THE BIGGEST IMPACT?

Ferrari has been on a mission to salvage its season since the Chinese Grand Prix, when Lewis Hamilton’s sprint-winning car was disqualified from the Sunday race for running too low.

Raise the car put it out of its performance window, which has been the biggest contributor to the team’s underperformance so far this season.

The potential solution to that problem is arriving in two stages. The first is a new floor, which will debut this weekend. The next and most crucial is new rear suspension, which is scheduled for the Belgian Grand Prix next month, according to Italian reports.

Given the unmet expectations of 2025, it’s unsurprising that Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton played down expectations for any meaningful improvement this weekend.

“I don’t think that it will fundamentally change [overall competitiveness],” Leclerc said, per Racer. “What we are looking to do is to do small steps in the right direction and obviously try and understand what direction we can push in the future.

“I expect steps forward. Would it be enough to close the gap to McLaren? Probably not because for now they are too far ahead.

“But I think it will be a step in the right direction. How much, I don’t know.”

Hamilton suggested the floor wasn’t about increasing downforce, implying it targets instead improved driveability or set-up options.

“We really don’t know the actual effect that it’s going to have,” he said. “It’s not the normal information we’re getting of how much load you added to the car — that’s not necessarily clear.

“Hopefully we’ll be a step in the right direction. I don’t think we’re expecting it to change a huge amount, but fingers crossed it’s better than we hope.”

Red Bull Racing will also bring a new package that motorsport adviser Helmut Marko has suggested will be the last roll of the dice on catching McLaren before the team switches focus to 2026.

“Hopefully it gives us a bit more performance,” Verstappen said. “The team has been working hard to get these parts.

“Of course I’m very happy that we have an upgrade here. Every little bit forward will help us be more competitive and hopefully close the gap a little bit.

“We just need to keep working hard, keep trying to close that gap down.”

Only Verstappen will have the new parts, with Yuki Tsunoda forced to wait until next weekend in Silverstone, when there will be further tweaks made.

But McLaren isn’t standing still, with new parts of its own set to debut this weekend.

“Some bits at the front of the car,” Piastri said. “Hopefully it makes us quicker. That’s normally the plan.”

With a run of four conventional European circuits leading to the mid-season break, the next few weeks will give us some conclusive answers on the form guide before it’s effectively locked in for the second part of the season.

WHERE IS GEORGE RUSSELL’S CONTRACT?

Fresh off a controlled victory in Canada, George Russell is in the form of his life, leading the Mercedes team on track ahead of a set of rule changes that could elevate the German marque back into title contention.

Russell would appear to be central to that plan. Except his good form and new seniority at the team has yet to be rewarded with a new deal.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff rebuffed questions on the subject in Montreal, saying only that there was no rush on getting a deal done. Russell has sung from the same hymn sheet, noting that Mercedes contracts have rarely been announced before July.

But then again, there are so few free agents for 2026 that it’s at least a little strange for negotiations to last so long.

In Austria Russell showed perhaps the first signs of uncertainty over the matter.

When asked what it will take to get a new deal done, he laughed.

“You’re asking the wrong person here, to be honest,” he said, and after a pause he added: “I don’t know.”

Pressed further on the matter, he said that talks had started “a little bit” but there were “no major updates”.

“It’s not something I’m pressing massively because, as I’ve always said, the performance is the priority, and I feel with the performance I’m showing at the moment — still in line with the performance I’ve shown over all these years — I’ve got zero reason to be worried,” he continued.

“But obviously it does help if there was pen on paper.”

He then launched into an argument for his retention on his own behalf.

“It goes both ways: I need them, they need me,” he said.

“Mercedes is so ambitious. They want to be back on top. They need to understand and think how they are going to bring Mercedes back on top.

“You need to have the best team principal. You need to have the best drivers in your car. You need to have the best engineers within your team.

“Toto’s made it clear to me that he thinks how I’m performing this year is as good as anybody. I think there’s only one driver that you can debate in terms of performance — and these are his words, these are not my words. That’s why I have no concern about the future.

“But there are two seats to every team, and I guess he needs to think who those two drivers are going to be for those two seats. I guess that’s what the delay is.”

That one driver is Verstappen, to whom Wolff continues to leave the door ajar.

This month is thought to be crucial to Verstappen’s potential to exit his Red Bull Racing contract. Reports and rumours vary, but one suggests he will be free to walk if he’s outside the top two in the drivers championship at the end of the month — Tuesday after this weekend’s race

He’s currently third in the standings and 21 points behind Norris for second.

It’s of course not clear whether he would choose to activate the clause and, if he did, whether he would choose Mercedes as his destination.

But the prospect seems to be enough to keep Russell waiting for a little longer.