Australian David Coulthard has issued a stiff warning to McLaren, and expects the current tranquility between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to last only a short time. The ex Formula 1 racer swears that all teammate rivalries are bound to end up in a mess, particularly when both of the racing drivers are similar in abilities and are in pursuit of a common dream. To Coulthard, it is a myth when teammates are actually friends. He explains the reality in a very harsh way: one chants the other as a barrier. The reply was simple, he said: your success is their failure and vice versa, making it clear that the internal competition may become so tough within Formula 1 team garage.

It is not mere theory- Formula 1 history has been full of team fighting rivalries that have defined much of the sport in an era. Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet and lately Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. All these rivalries were exciting to fans and divisive wounds to teams. It is at this point that Coulthard is convinced that McLaren is on the road to the same storm as the difference between Norris and Piastri continues to close. The two are young, ambitious and holder of no world championship. The pressure is also on as McLaren at last is able to give a car that can fight at the front. Coulthard emphasised that it might be the only time either of them has the machinery to accomplish the aim, and desperation might rapidly overshadow the judgement.

His opinion is gained out of experience. Mika Hakkinen was with Coulthard at McLaren, and the two did not always get along well. He acknowledged that there were times that they just could not bear living with one another. But that rivalry had pushed the subjects of the rivalry to dig deeper and work on being better. Gradually it evolved not only into mutual respect but also friendship- yet when in full competition, the first aspect was always, to break the other psychologically or physically on the track. The nature of that memory, Coulthard implies, is the likeliest similar to what will occur to Norris and Piastri, in the event, the title battle continues to be as tight as it has been.

To McLaren, dealing with such a scenario is not a simple phenomenon. So far, the team boss Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown have held a policy of equality, and although both drivers are offered equal opportunities only a single guiding rule has been followed: keep it clean. Although such a fair approach is cheered by fans, it is extremely risky too. The results of letting two greedy racers engage each other without any limits are usually fireworks. Even the suspicion of favoritism or inner politics can do harm, and without that there is always the possibility of crashing on the track or behind the scenes. The question is how to balance letting them race and keeping the control and that is where McLaren will win the season or lose.

Add to this the big picture and the situation gets heated. It is also a possibility that next season regulation changes in the sport will re-set the grid completely, and leave McLaren guessing at whether they will be competitive or not. The point, made by Coulthard, is elementary the moment is now. This is perhaps the only opportunity that Norris or Piastri has to win world champion. Such need accompanied by the evenness to which the two match is a formula to conflict. According to him, it is just a matter of time before the rivalry overflowed.

The position is, at the present moment, McLaren is an ambitious but weak approach. Should Norris and Piastri succeed in transferring their competition to increase the level of each other in performance, the team would receive tremendous dividends and even become champions. However, in case of heated emotions and switching the relationship to hostility, McLaren might easily end up repeating popular teammate battles that have marked F1 history. The fact that Coulthard warned of the same is laden with the experience of personal experience and the next few months will disclose how far McLaren can prevail in suspending upon the thin line of competition and eventual collapse.

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