Oscar Piastri jokes about painful McLaren episode with Hamilton-Alonso gag

Oscar Piastri has made light of the Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso's fateful season together at McLaren as his F1 title fight with Lando Norris ramps up.

The papaya pair have begun to eek out an advantage over Max Verstappen and George Russell in the battle for the drivers' champion this season.

They claimed a clean sweep of one-two finishes at the Miami Grand Prix, their first since the Chinese Grand Prix, to place the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers squarely in the rear view mirror for now.

Verstappen is now 32 points behind Piastri and 16 adrift of Norris. Russell is a further six points back.

However, intra-team championship battles, particularly at McLaren, can produce disastrous outcomes. Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna's ill-tempered tenure together in Woking is well documented, as is Hamilton and Alonso's calamitous campaign in 2007.

The latter is known for imploding into the Spygate saga, which saw the now-constructors' champions fined a record $100 million. It also cost the team the constructors' title after being dumped out of the championship as part of its punishment.

Relations between rookie Hamilton and reigning two-time drivers' champion Alonso descended into chaos and the Spaniard returned to Renault at the end of the campaign.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen ended up taking the title by a point from the pair, which probably is not lost on Piastri, who made a playful reference to the season when asked whether the current McLaren team-mates could emulate another one of Hamilton's tense battles - with Nico Rosberg at Mercedes - this year.

"Yeah, we said that we’re trying to repeat 2007, so… I don’t know," he joked to media including RacingNews365.

Tackling the question more seriously, he added: "We clearly know that we have our strengths. It’s always been close between us. It’s going to be a good battle.

"There will be weekends where Lando is stronger, and weekends where I am stronger."

Sustainable success

The Australian left the Miami International Autodrome having extended his advantage over Norris in the standings from 10 points to 16, despite finishing second to the 25-year-old in the sprint.

To set the record straight on his 2007 joke, Piastri highlighted how the pair want to achieve sustained success at McLaren, as both bid for championship glory.

"We’re very aware of the fact that we want this success for as long as we’re at McLaren, which is a very long time for both of us," he said.

"We’re aware there’s going to be a fight. We both want to become world champion, obviously. But we don’t just want one opportunity at this success.

"We want it for the next however many years, and that’s an important and an easy thing to keep in mind for us and the whole team."