Just five Formula One race weekends ago, Oscar Piastri was riding high and looked nailed on to be the first McLaren driver to claim a world championship since lewis Hamilton in 2008. His pole to race win race in the sand dunes of Zandvoort saw him with a 34 point lead over his team mate who DNF’s with an faulty oil pipe and a massive 104 points over current champion Max Verstappen.
Yet since then the Australian has failed to beat either of his title rivals and a series of mistakes has seen him absent from the podium celebrations too. Last time out in Astuin Texas, Piastri made a woeful decision in the Sprint to try an undercut his team mate into turn one of the Sprint.
The result was both he and his team mate, along with Fernando Alonso were out of the Sprint which was won by Verstappen. But worse for the team was the fact given it was a Sprint weekend they lost all the data on how to set up the cars for Grand Prix qualifying and the race on Sunday.
Norris suffered “consequences” from Singapore
Ironically it was Oscar who suffered more from this lost track time and his car setup combined with the low grip nature of the circuit meant he finished a fortunate P5, while Norris was second. Yet the weekend before it was Lando Norris who had made a mistake and partially compromised McLaren’s race opportunities for which the team punished him as McLaren’s management revealed in Austin, Texas.
“It was a pretty minor incident at the start of a Grand Prix. It’s pretty chaotic [in those moments], it was a damp track, it clearly wasn’t intentional, and so we worked through with them different consequences for different situations. It was a pretty minor situation, so it’s a pretty minor consequence,” said CEO Zak Brown.
Of course McLaren’s refusal to reveal the exact nature of the consequences sent the paddock rumour mill into w whirling dervish as Brown added it wold only affect Lando on Saturday’s. It quilt became clear the punishment meted out was the team had removed Norris’ privileges to choose on alternative weekend’s where he ran in qualifying.
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Piastri takes out his team mate
Piastri ran second in Q1 but in need of a lap in Q2, he went ahead of his team mate to mitigate the possibility of a yellow flag and a ruined session. Now McLaren are faced with a self inflicted problem, having rejected the stewards decision that Norris move in Singapore was a racing incident, the team intervened.
Following the chaos cause by Piastri and the detrimental effect it had on the team understanding the crucial ride height for their car in Austin, they are now forced to act against their Australian driver under the self declared ‘papaya rules’ of fairness to all.
Again the stewards ruled the Aussie’s mistake was a racing incident, but fellow drivers and pundits alike in unanimous voice out the finger of blame on Piastri. Martin Brundle of Sky at the time observed: “I don’t think there’ll be any repercussions at McLaren because it was basically just Piastri getting spun around,” said the former McLaren driver.
He goes on to argue that in fact Piastri was spun around by Nico Hulkenberg. Yet as Karun Chandhok demonstrated with TV replays, the German driver had nowhere to go given Fernando Alonso was on his inside.
McLaren strategic mistake which could cost Oscar dear
McLaren management get it wrong
The response from the McLaren pit wall also condemned the innocent Hulkenberg. “That was terrible. Neither of our drivers to blame there. That’s some amateur-hour driving by some drivers up there at the front, (they) wacked out two guys,” said Zak Brown live on air.
“I want to see the replay again but clearly Nico Hulkenberg drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was, he went into his left-rear tyre.” Brown was later forced to revise his opinion merely saying, “we can’t lay that on Nico.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was also hasty to judgement, stating after the session: “It’s surprising that some drivers with a lot of experience don’t act with more prudence – go to the first corner, make sure you don’t damage competitors then carry on.”
He demanded “prudence” from the unnamed culprits and later he stood by his assessment that more “prudence” was required although he was now clearly directing his comments at Piastri.
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Ex-F1 driver say McLaren “set a precedent”
Lando Norris admitted the matter would have to be reviewed in line with the team’s papaya rules but ex-F1 driver karin Chandhok believes the team must take action against its Australian driver.
“In my opinion, I wouldn’t have done anything here but I wouldn’t have done anything for Singapore because that was also a lap 1 racing incident,” said the Indian racer. “The tricky thing they have got themselves into internally is by doing what they did after Singapore and publicly declaring it, it’s set a precedent.”
The exact nature of any punishment McLaren will meet out to Oscar is unclear at present, although given the dramatic difference in the outcome of both drivers’ misdemeanours, it will presumably be a stiffer penalty than losing the choice of where to run in qualifying.
Norris cold be awarded the choice of when to run in qualifying, but also the privilege awarded to the leads McLaren on track – the decision when to pit stop. This rule has meant the second McLaren driver during the Grand Prix has been unable to make a different strategy call to their team mate in an attempt to make an over or under cut work and take track position.
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Give Norris free choice of tyre strategy
Were this to be the sanction McLaren manufacture, it would be true to their principles of “letting them race.” Currently one driver suffers a disadvantage due to their starting position, allowing a free choice of tyre strategy would allow the driver behind the opportunity to reverse their fortunes.
Of course this could compromise the overall number of points McLaren may score in a race, should the alternative strategy fail miserably. Yet with the constructors championship trophy in the display cabinet in Woking, even this is no reason to prevent Norris from trying something different should he find himself behind his team mate in a Grand Prix.
The paddock waits with baited breath to see how McLaren will wriggle themselves out of their latest self inflicted controversy, and should they do nothing – Lando Norris’ fans will take to social media en masse.
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With the Formula One driver’s title now wide open with Lando Norris having slashed his team mates advantage by 20 points to just a lead of 14 and Max Verstapen roaring back into a record fifth consecutive championship bid over the past four race weekends – The 2025 Grand Prix of Mexico may prove to be a pictorial weekend.
Last year the race was back to back with the US Grand Prix where Max Verstappen’s move on Lando Norris to take the win created paddock uproar, but yet the stewards sanctioned it as fair. The pair were at it again at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, yet this time the race stewards handed the world champion two lots of ten second penalties which cost him the race win although it was Carlos Sainz who claimed victory for Ferrari.
The F1 weekend in Mexico City was abandoned in 1993 before finally returning in 2016 where it saw the world champion elect Nico Rosberg take the chequered flag. Lewis Hamilton stood on the top step of the podium the following year before a run of five wins at the Mexico City circuit for Max Verstappen was only interrupted by Hamilton in 2019…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
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