Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris would be, on their own, in contention to be the highest scoring constructor in what has been a dominant Formula 1 season for McLaren.
It's impressive, to say the least. But there are still a contingent of fans not willing to give either driver their flowers, and for good reason.
The McLaren has been such a good car that both drivers have been able to afford their fair share of mistakes, and they've both made them.
Piastri gave away a podium in Melbourne. Norris nearly went off twice in the closing laps, but kept it together to hold off Max Verstappen. Piastri let Verstappen get in his head (for no reason) at Silverstone, resulting in a penalty that handed the win to Norris.
Norris crashed out in Montreal while making an ill-advised move on Piastri. Then at Spa, he went off the track continuously as he failed to hunt down his teammate. At Singapore, Norris needed to take evasive action to avoid hitting Verstappen at the start, so he barged into the side of Piastri instead.
Those are just some of the moments that stand out so far this year. Alas, one of those two is likely set to win a hard-earned world championship following a fierce intrateam battle. But neither has come close to the "generational talent" label that fans have been so eager to use whenever it's convenient and suits their argument. We don't need to reopen the "GOAT" conversation whenever someone wins a race.
There are plenty of other drivers, and not just in Formula 1, who would, without a doubt, be vying for the world championship lead, if not outright leading it, in this year's McLaren, against either one (or both) of the team's two current drivers.
Here are the top five.
Alex Palou
There's a reason Zak Brown tried to sign Alex Palou away from Chip Ganassi Racing (twice), and the initial goal wasn't simply to get him out of the No. 10 Honda and move him to an Arrow McLaren Chevrolet on the IndyCar side.
No; his goal was to have the now four-time IndyCar champion replace the struggling Daniel Ricciardo alongside Norris in Formula 1, before Ganassi's reluctance to let him go – and ultimately the ensuing court case – led to Piastri being named that replacement after his own legal drama with Alpine, his former team.
Look; Norris has steadily improved throughout his racing career, and McLaren weren't true contenders until mid-2023 following a sweeping set of upgrades. But even a struggling Ricciardo got a win before Norris did with the Woking-based team.
I can't even try to sit here and argue that either current McLaren driver would be ahead of Palou, a driver who has dominated an era of IndyCar that, before his arrival, was championed for its parity and closeness of competition.
He hasn't been anywhere other than P1 in the standings since June 2024, and he's the first in 45 years to lead wire-to-wire in a season during which he also won the Indy 500. He has earned the "generational talent" label and would probably have at least 10 wins in this year's MCL39.
Scott Dixon
Before there was Alex Palou drama, there was Scott Dixon. And we won't go as far as saying this was "drama" because Dixon never let it get to that point, remaining loyal to Chip Ganassi (and clinching two more championships since).
In 2018, as McLaren eyed a full IndyCar return following their Indy 500 attempt with Fernando Alonso, they pursued Dixon to be their first full-time driver, even though everybody in IndyCar knew (or at least should have known) that he wasn't going to bail on Ganassi.
It obviously didn't work, but the point stands Dixon has been performing at the highest level in a spec series for the past two-plus decades.
I'll never forget Graham Rahal sweeping the doubleheader at Detroit in 2017 and saying that it's rewarding to have a dominant weekend like that in a series which requires you to beat more than just your teammate.
He followed that up by stating that Lewis Hamilton, then dominating Formula 1 with Mercedes, would have "more than he really wants to deal with" if he had Scott Dixon competing against him in the same machinery.
So would Piastri and Norris, because Dixon, even at 45, is still doing it.
Pato O'Ward
Every once in a while, the Pato O'Ward-to-Formula 1 rumor resurfaces, though you can't imagine Brown would actually want to displace one of his two current world championship contenders with his IndyCar star, even if it would probably be an upgrade. It's become clickbait at best.
For years, consistency is what plagued O'Ward. But in 2025, he has taken that to another level, and if not for Palou doing things nobody has ever done before in the modern era, he might actually be running away with the championship.
O'Ward's 31.6 points per race average (before his Nashville tire failure) was right on par with Palou's title-winning marks from 2021 and 2024, as well as Will Power's from 2022, and he has shown throughout his career that he is capable of winning on all types of circuits. Unlike in Formula 1, that is actually required to succeed in IndyCar.
With nine career wins, he's one of only five active drivers whose career win total is better than Palou's 2025 win total (eight), which seems strange to use as a "flex", but Palou's dominance this year makes that an incredibly big deal, especially since O'Ward is the newest to the series of those five drivers.
Christian Lundgaard
I know the casual motorsport fan who actually thinks Formula 1 consists of the "20 best drivers in the world" and that IndyCar is a minor-league series probably thinks that including four of the top five drivers in the IndyCar standings is ludicrous.
But the idea that Formula 1 drivers are on a different level than IndyCar drivers was cool maybe 20 or 25 years ago now. Don't forget that Lundgaard came up through the European ranks, was a top prospect in the early 2020s, and qualified fourth in his first race in an Indy Car.
Similar to Piastri this year, Lundgaard has somewhat surprisingly established himself as a No. 1-level driver, and he's done it in only his first year at Arrow McLaren. Though he finished the year behind O'Ward in points, he already has the consistency that O'Ward lacked during the early stages of his career, and he was actually on the podium more times than his teammate in 2025.
I'm not saying I believe in curses, but McLaren would be wise to get him out of the No. 7 car. Since Danica Patrick won in that car number more than 17 years ago, the number hasn't won, despite scoring 20 podium finishes while its teammates have combined for 20 victories (across several different teams) during that stretch.
Put him in the No. 6 and pretend it was sponsorship-related or something; I don't know. Just do it. The entire fanbase wants to see him get that elusive win.
Max Verstappen
You didn't think we'd forget the best Formula 1 driver of this era, did you?
Here's a stat to chew on. Max Verstappen just passed Michael Schumacher for the all-time record with 33 Grand Prix victories in years their teams did not win the constructor championship, with Verstappen's 33 making up nearly half of his career win total of 67. Schumacher had held what was once viewed as an untouchable record with 31.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are tied with the guy writing this article at zero.
Without Verstappen, Red Bull have been the 10th quickest team on the grid for the large majority of this season, and it hasn't even been that close. Just look at what Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson have done in the Racing Bulls cars, compared to what they've done in the second Red Bull car. That car is a last-place car without the Dutchman taking it to heights that are unachievable on paper.
While a lot of that does have to do with how challenging the Red Bull is to drive, that only further vindicates Verstappen. While his dominance over Piastri or Norris may not reach the levels it reached during his time against Sergio Perez if they were teammates, there is zero chance either one would beat him in a season-long battle in equal equipment.
Last year's result – a constructor championship for McLaren vs. a P3 finish for Red Bull, coupled with six McLaren wins vs. nine Verstappen wins and a fourth straight world championship – can attest to that assertion. Nobody had previously won a world title with a third-place team since Nelson Piquet in 1983.
The good thing about 2025 for Verstappen fans is that even his biggest critics have finally realized he's not just a product of good machinery. In any sport, it's amazing how certain eras get romanticized by the "haters" only after they're either already over or nearing their end.