Former racer Juan Pablo Montoya warns McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris that the championship battle will be fierce and physical. With Max Verstappen still far behind – the Dutchman is 97 points short compared to Piastri – the championship seems to be turning into a direct title fight between the ‘papayas’. The team forbids them from making contact on the track, but according to Montoya, this is inevitable.
With ten races to go, Oscar Piastri has a slight lead over teammate Lando Norris, but the Brit is on a roll – with three victories in the last four Grands Prix, the 25-year-old driver is in top form. Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya sees how Norris is ramping up the pressure on his teammate and predicts that this will undoubtedly lead to hard collisions. Is a Papaya War finally on the horizon?
Explosion
Montoya refers to previous confrontations between the McLaren drivers. In Montreal, there was the first mention of a minor crash, and in Austria and Hungary, Piastri challenged his teammate for the win. According to the Colombian, this is the moment when the Australian needs to step up his game. “When you’re behind, it’s easy to do what Norris is doing now,” he told gambling platform Coin Poker. “And then the excitement and shouting start.” On the other side of the garage, Montoya observes how Piastri’s ‘cool-headedness’ has decreased. “He will have to work extremely hard to maintain this, but at the same time, Norris can’t relax either.”
Montoya warns that the tension and high stakes will lead to the two encountering each other physically more often, whether intentional or not. “So there comes a point where they, whether intentional or not, collide,” he warned. “Every point counts now. Every overtaking move you miss, every divebomb you don’t make, are wasted points.” Montoya explained how everything is still peaceful at McLaren, but that you can expect ‘an explosion’ in the second half of the season. “There’s a sense of peace and happiness now – everyone is best friends with each other and we hold each other’s hand as we go racing,” he said sarcastically. “But I would bet on an explosion sooner or later.”
