Piastri outlines McLaren sparring rules ahead of new F1 season

Oscar Piastri has outlined he is free to fight team-mate Lando Norris throughout the upcoming F1 season.

McLaren enter the year aiming to defend the constructors' title it won last year over Ferrari.

However, both Piastri and Norris are aiming to triumph in the drivers' championship and bring the trophy to McLaren for the first time since 2008.

The rules of engagement between the pair changed in the latter stages of 2024 when McLaren upped its efforts to close the gap to Verstappen in the standings with Norris.

But with both starting from zero points ahead of the first round, Piastri asserted there are no restrictions imposed.

“I think that we’re crystal clear going into the start of the season,” he said.

“We’re both starting on zero. There’s every opportunity for either one of us to go win races.”

Piastri acknowledged if the championship gap between the two gets too large, one driver may be favoured over the other.

“Of course if there becomes a points difference in either direction towards the end of the season and we need our team-mate’s help then we’ll try and help each other out.

“But that’s still going to be a long, long way away and hopefully never comes to fruition.

“I think for either one of us we want to win because we’ve been able to put in the performances ourselves.

“Going into the season we’ll be racing each other hard but fairly, and hopefully it’s more often than not [that we’re] fighting for first and second.”