Coulthard: Norris knows the team better than his teammate.

      One of the topics being actively discussed after the end of the season is McLaren’s policy regarding Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. On the one hand, the team proclaims a principle of equality and says it has no No. 1 or No. 2 driver; on the other, it was hard to shake the impression that McLaren’s management favored Lando. In part for that reason, he became the 2025 world champion.

      “This is a difficult question, isn’t it?” mused David Coulthard, a former Formula 1 driver, while taking part in the Red Flags podcast. “Of course, ask anyone at McLaren and they’ll immediately tell you it’s not the case. And that’s perfectly understandable — I can see that. Moreover, they can sincerely believe it.

      You know, I only have one son, but if you have two children, one of them will be a little closer to you. That happens because we are all different. For example, there were three children in my family; I’m the middle one, and my older brother is very different from me. My sister, who, unfortunately, is no longer with us, was also a completely different person.

      Overall, I think Lando, who has contested more than 150 Grands Prix for McLaren, knows the team better, and relationships, by definition, are built and strengthened only over time. That’s true. So I believe the team creates equal conditions for its drivers in the sense that they are given identical cars.

      I believe in McLaren and think that its successes are the result of Zak Brown and Andrea Stella, as well as the rest of the team, including the guys I had the chance to work with — Rob Marshall and Peter Prodromou. It’s very pleasing to see that, through their combined efforts, they were able to create this culture of striving for success.

      I suppose credit must be given to McLaren: its drivers have competed against each other across different decades, because that’s the team’s approach — they always try to secure the two best drivers.

      Certainly, Ferrari has a different approach; that was the case even in Michael Schumacher’s time, and I know this because I was offered a contract that stated I would be number two to Schumacher. Given what we know now, I understand that I would have been second to Michael in any case, but I couldn’t bring myself to sign a contract that codified that.

      You see, that suited Eddie Irvine, as well as Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa, although they also achieved considerable success while driving for Ferrari. But, in my view, with McLaren — starting from the rivalry between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, and then in the duels between other drivers who drove for the team — we saw that they really wanted to get the very best drivers, and then tried to exert some control over them.”

      David Coulthard spent nine seasons with McLaren, including finishing runner-up in the 2001 world championship, and moved to Red Bull Racing in 2005.