Ewan Gale has been a part of GPBlog since 2025, working as a contributing editor. After gaining a first-class degree in Sports Journalism in 2019, Ewan has built experience working for GPFans, RacingNews365 and Autosport, reporting on-site from a number of grands prix, car launches and team events.
Formula E driver Sam Bird doesn't believe McLaren will allow Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to get into on-track tussles through the season
Bird, who races for the Woking-based outfit in the all-electric single-seater championship, was speaking on the BBC F1 Chequered Flag podcast after Piastri led home Norris for a one-two from his first career pole position.
That result was McLaren's 50th one-two in F1 and underlined the team's favouritism for both drivers' and constructors' world championships, with it looking likely that its duo will fight each other for title honours.
Norris was unable to launch an attack on his teammate to try and make it two wins from two after being hamstrung by a critical brake issue late in the race that left him "lucky" to finish, though he was able to fend off Mercedes driver George Russell's charge.
McLaren under control
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Asked whether he thought McLaren would have allowed a fight on track, Bird said: "My heart wanted to say yeah, we were going to have a great battle but honestly my head was saying no.
"It needed just to be under control at this stage in the championship, you want to eke away from the competition, a little bit like you would in a singular race, you want to eke away and then fight towards the end. There will be multiple race wins - I believe - for both Piastri and Norris this year. At one point, if one of them gets a string of results together in a row, then we might see somebody pulling away from the other.
"But it is quite nip-and-tuck right now. The team just wants to score one-twos."
This article was written in collaboration with Hidde Korte.
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