In Formula 1, an internal duel is emerging around the World Cup title. The opponents still understand themselves well, but experience shows that that should change quickly.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piatri are still playing for fun. The two McLaren pilots dominated the start of the season of Formula 1 this year and divided the two Grand Prix victories among themselves. While Norris was at the top of the podium in Australia, Piatri triumphed in China. It is a picture that could run throughout the season in view of the superiority of the McLaren (at least over a full racing distance).
Norris and Piatri could make the driver’s title among themselves. It is a fact that is still a lot of fun for the two McLaren pilots. At the press conference after the race in China, they joked how teammates had clashed in the World Cup fight in the past. The two drivers noticeably strive for looseness. However, the scene also showed that Norris and Piatri is well aware of their precarious situation. You know: it can only pop between them.
There are many examples of teammates that have become bitter enemies – even with German participation. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber worked together at Red Bull between 2009 and 2013 as teammates. Fans from this time particularly remember: the so-called “Multi 21” incident. This occurred at the Malaysia Grand Prix in 2013. The two Red Bulls confidently led the race. Webber was in the lead, Vettel immediately behind in second place.
In order not to endanger this optimal result for the team, the racing team Vettel via the box radio under the code “Multi Map 21” said that it should hold its position and that webber should not attack. But Vettel strives to win his fourth driver title in a row in the season, the team order opposed. This was followed by a heated bike-to-wheel duel between the teammates, which Vettel won in the end. Already in the lounge before the award ceremony there was a correspondingly thick air between the drivers when webber confronted his teammates with his misconduct. Vettel later apologized for the incident, but the relationship with Webber could no longer be repaired – even if it should only last for the rest of the season.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg fought a longer conflict. The two had been good friends since youth when they became teammates at Mercedes in 2013. Everything looked like the perfect combination. But from 2014, Mercedes exhibited the best car in Formula 1. For three seasons, Hamilton and Rosberg always made the World Cup title among themselves. The friendly duels, such as in Bahrain in 2014, when they overtook each other over several rounds and then talked happily gently about their duel at the top, did not take long.
The first collisions and mutual blame quickly occurred between the two. The friendship turned into bitter rivalry. Scenes, such as after the US Grand Prix 2015, when Hamilton and Rosberg increased each other with a cap or the spectacular crash of the two at the Spain race 2016, now shaped the relationship between the two former friends. A relationship that has not yet been completely repaired since Rosberg’s end of 2016.
When it comes to team rivalries, however, you have had some experience, especially with McLaren. As early as the end of the 1980s, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost fought close duels for the World Cup in their McLaren, including a highly controversy and World Cup decisive accident in the race in Japan in 1989.