Lando Norris takes Oscar Piastri for wild ride in $1.5 million hypercar

McLaren gave fans an early taste of the 2025 Formula 1 season, posting a fun video of Lando Norris taking teammate Oscar Piastri for a high-speed drive around Silverstone to Instagram. The British driver took the wheel of his McLaren P1 hypercar as a brave Piastri rode shotgun.

2025 will be the drivers' third season together, coming off the back of a successful 2024 where the Papaya team won the Constructors' Championship for the first time since 1998. With the team's 'Papaya Rules' coming under scrutiny last year with McLaren eventually favouring the more experienced Norris, it's great to see the drivers in such good spirits.

On sitting in the car alongside his worried-looking teammate, Oscar gestured a cross on his chest before jokingly asking for harnesses. "Had it been lowered?" the Australian asked, mirroring Martin Brundle's "slammed" comments on the same car from a Sky Sports F1 feature.

"No," Norris answered. "That's actually just how it is mate: decked... in 'race mode', because it makes quite a big difference when you just go out of race mode, so the rear wing's down, you see?"

The P1, known to be one of the Holy Trinity of hypercars alongside the Porsche 918 and the LaFerrari and currently valued at approximately $1.5 million, boasts 903 bhp and 664 lbft of torque from its hybrid powertrain. With a top speed of 217 mph, the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 not only sounds the part, but acts it, too.

Heading out onto the iconic Silverstone Circuit, the two immediately started the tyre chat as they began to analyse the traction available to them.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Getty Images

"Is that flat out?" Piastri asked with a disappointing look on his face as the revs began to build. No, it wasn't. Norris admitted he was "too scared" to open it up on the wet surface, but the two had plenty of fun as the car struggled with rear traction on the turns. Piastri was surprisingly composed as his teammate wrestled the hypercar around the slick tarmac, but the conversation quickly turned to the W1, the marque's newly released hypercar.

Revealed towards the end of 2024, the W1 is McLaren's most powerful road car to date, with a combined output of 1,258 horsepower. That's approximately 300 more than the P1 - a car that is already a handful. With a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine mated to an electric motor, 62 mph comes and goes in just 2.7 seconds. If you keep your foot in it, the car will reach a limited 217 mph.

"The W1's nearly got 300 horsepower more [than the P1]," Piastri told Norris as the two laughed together in disbelief.