McLaren handed serious warning after narrowly avoiding 'big risk' disaster

Guenther Steiner believes it will be "difficult" for McLaren to manage Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri through another F1 drivers' championship battle.

The former Haas team principal feels that unless one of the pair becomes "superior", the Woking-based squad will struggle to handle a repeat scenario of 2025.

Appraising McLaren's approach to an intra-team title fight as taking a "big risk" over the campaign just gone, Steiner argued Max Verstappen never would have been in contention without the "help" the papaya outfit provided.

In his view, had the constructors' champions prioritised one of their drivers after the summer break — which, interestingly, would surely have been Piastri in that hypothetical — it would never have allowed the Red Bull driver to take it down to the wire.

Norris ultimately took his maiden crown, but he prevailed against the Dutchman by just two points. It was the closest championship finish since 2007 and 2008 — under the old points format — were each decided by a single point.

Red Bull, for its part, came on strong in the final part of the year. Its transformation under Laurent Mekies and its Monza-spec floor upgrade vaulted Verstappen back into race-winning form.

But, when asked whether or not the four-time F1 drivers' champion being within reach of a fifth title was a gift from McLaren, Steiner told Sport Krone: "Absolutely. Without McLaren's help, Red Bull would never have had a chance to fight for the World Championship.

"In the end, they narrowly won the title, but if McLaren had put their faith in one driver after the summer break, the World Championship would have been decided much earlier.

"McLaren kept it exciting for the fans, but they took a big risk in doing so."

The Italian has concerns over the long-term viability of McLaren's line-up, with Norris and Piastri considered two of the strongest drivers in F1 and both sharing equal status at the team.

Unless either McLaren or one of the two falls from grace, Steiner sees significant problems ahead.

"If they aren't fighting for the title, then it can work in the long term," he added.

"But if McLaren is fighting for the title again – and one driver isn't suddenly completely superior to the other – it will be difficult to manage in the long run."