If you’ve been watching the latest Formula 1 season, you’ve probably heard all about McLaren, their drivers, Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri, and the favoritism within the team. How true is this claim of favoring one driver over the other? Let’s take a closer look into McLaren’s season so far.
As we know, in Formula One, each driver is racing for the team and themselves. They have the opportunity to help their team win the Constructor’s Championship while also racing for the Driver’s Championship. Each team takes a different strategy, and McLaren is very open about providing both drivers the same opportunities for success. But this isn’t always evident during race weekends where some actions taken greatly favor one driver over the other.
At the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Piastri took the lead for most of the season when Norris decided to fight for the title of Drivers’ World Champion. Eventually the two drivers were tied in points, when Lando pulled ahead because of some questionable team calls during each race.
The rumors on social media really took off in Italy when McLaren had Piastri give Norris his “place” back in the race when he had a slow pit. According to the team, Norris qualified ahead of Piastri, so it was only fair that the spot was given back.
Now from an outsider’s perspective, it was the team’s fault Norris had a slow pit, so why should Piastri have to pay for it? He’s also driving to win the championship. Shouldn’t he get a fair shot at winning? The swap cut his lead down to 31 points.
It didn’t end there. Norris finally took first place at the Mexico Grand Prix in late October, beating out Piastri by one point. He continued to widen the gap at Sao Paulo by 24 points because Piasti crashed out of the Sprint race and received a ten second penalty as he came in contact with another driver.
As the season came to a close, Norris continued to put a gap between himself and his teammate. It all came down to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Norris led the championship followed closely by Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. Even though Verstappen won the race, Norris still came out on top, winning the Driver Championship. Piastri still put up a fight, ending the race in second place but third overall for the title.
When news outlets asked Zak Brown. McLaren’s CEO, about the team favoring Norris over Piastri, Brown did his best to diminish the rumors. Every chance he gets, Brown preaches about McLaren’s parity between its drivers. Piastri deflects any accusations of bias between him and his teammate by explaining the team’s strategies in post-race interviews.
Even with all the PR clean up after races, fans still believe there are forms of favoritism between the two drivers. Based off mid-race radio reactions and other driver comments (more specifically, Verstappen stirring the pot), Piastri fans continue to point out the obvious actions taken to help Norris win the championship in the second half of the season. Do you think Mclaren is bias of its drivers or is the social media rumor mill working overtime?
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