“We just have to be ready for that. I think both Oscar and myself know that, we’re competitive, we want to beat each other but the main thing is we stay strong together as a team. But everything is in the open, everything is obvious, everything is known between us.
“We both want to win, we both want to beat each other, but at the end of the day there can only be one person and that will be whoever performs the best over the course of the year.
“I think Andrea [Stella, McLaren Team Principal] said it, it’s not an ‘if’, it’s a ‘when’ and we’ll see when that time comes. But of course we’ll try and avoid everything as much as possible but it’s inevitable that it happens in racing.”
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Going into the race weekend in Montreal Piastri has taken five wins this season, and only finished off the podium once in nine races, while Norris has taken just two wins.
Norris believes his team mate has “improved in most areas” compared with last season and that he needs to raise his own performances to challenge for the title over the remaining 15 races.
“He’s in his third season of F1, I remember in my third season you just come into the year a little bit more confident and with a bit more knowledge and just a more complete driver,” the Briton said.
“That’s what he’s done and he’s performing well, he’s driving incredibly well and at a very high level and deserves everything he’s been doing at the minute. It’s a good fun rivalry between us.”
