So much for McLaren’s harmonious little family, then. Oscar Piastri just delivered the most polite middle finger in Formula One history when asked whether he’d help teammate Lando Norris win the championship. The answer? A resounding “no”.
Forget the corporate waffle about being a team player. Forget the PR spin about unity and cooperation. When it came down to the crunch question in Qatar, Piastri didn’t even pretend to consider it. “We’ve had a very brief discussion on it and the answer is ‘no’,” he said. Brief indeed. Wonder how long that conversation lasted? Five seconds? Three?
The Math That Makes McLaren Sweat
Here’s the situation that’s got Woking’s management biting their nails. Norris leads the championship by 24 points over both Piastri and Max Verstappen. Two rounds left. Fifty-eight points up for grabs. Three drivers who can still win it.
And McLaren’s younger driver just declared he’s not interested in playing second fiddle.
Can you blame him? Piastri sits equal on points with a four-time world champion and reckons he’s got “a decent shot” at the title if things fall his way. Why should he sacrifice that for a teammate who’s only 24 points ahead? Because the team asks nicely?
When “Equal Treatment” Meets Inconvenient Reality
McLaren have spent all season banging on about how both drivers are treated equally. How they’re free to race. How there’s no number one or number two. Lovely sentiment, that. Really progressive. Very modern.
Except now that policy is about to bite them squarely in the backside.
Both drivers have won seven races this season. Seven each. You can’t exactly turn around to one of them and say “actually mate, could you just move over now?” after spending months insisting they’re equals. Well, you can, but expect the answer Piastri just gave.
The Australian hasn’t finished ahead of Norris since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August. His form has dropped off. But he’s still mathematically in it, and that’s apparently all that matters to him.
The Verstappen Factor Nobody Saw Coming
Let’s rewind for a moment. At the end of August, Verstappen was 104 points behind Piastri. One hundred and four. The title race looked done and dusted. McLaren versus McLaren, pick your favourite papaya car.
Then the four-time champion did what four-time champions do. He won in Las Vegas. His fourth victory in eight races since the summer break. Suddenly he’s right back in the fight, tied on points with Piastri and breathing down Norris’s neck.
And McLaren? Well, both their cars got disqualified from Vegas for running illegal skid blocks. Because nothing says “championship-winning operation” quite like failing a technical inspection by 0.12mm.
The History Lesson Nobody Asked For
Piastri’s manager is Mark Webber. Remember him? The man who got shafted by Red Bull’s team politics more times than we can count. “Multi-21” ring any bells?
Webber was involved in a four-way title battle in 2010 that ended with his teammate Sebastian Vettel winning the championship in the final race, despite being 15 points off the lead going into Abu Dhabi. Vettel had even said he’d help Webber if necessary. How’d that work out?
Think that history isn’t playing in Piastri’s head right now? Think his manager isn’t whispering “don’t trust team orders” in his ear every five minutes?
“I know it’s not impossible,” Piastri said, referencing that very scenario. The kid’s 24 years old and could become the first Australian world champion since Alan Jones in 1980. You really expect him to throw that away?
Norris Plays It Cool While McLaren Panics
To his credit, Norris isn’t publicly demanding help. “The gap before Las Vegas was 24 points and it is still 24, so nothing needs to change,” he said. Very diplomatic. Very mature.
He also admitted the Las Vegas disqualification hurt. “Everyone at McLaren feels let down, and we are disappointed,” he confessed. Yeah, we’d imagine losing a second-place finish because your car was too low by the width of a human hair would sting a bit.
But apparently he found it “easy to move on”. Did he though? Or is that just more F1 media training talking?
The Ferrari and Mercedes Wild Cards
As if this championship finale wasn’t complicated enough, Ferrari and Mercedes are still fighting for second in the constructors’ standings. They’re not in the drivers’ title fight, but they can absolutely play spoiler.
“Everyone is going out there to try and fight for wins and podiums,” Piastri noted. Translation: don’t expect anyone to make this easy for us.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton aren’t going to pull over because McLaren have a championship dilemma. George Russell won’t suddenly develop team spirit for the papaya brigade. This is Formula One. Nobody does anyone any favours.
The Sprint Race Complication
Oh, and there’s a sprint race in Qatar. Because why make things simple when you can add extra chaos to the mix?
Norris could theoretically wrap up the title on Sunday if he outscores both Verstappen and Piastri by two points across the weekend. That’s the sprint and the main race combined. No pressure, Lando.
Meanwhile, Verstappen has looked ominously quick recently. “We expect Red Bull to be quick here and next weekend, too,” Norris admitted. Fantastic. Nothing like racing a four-time champion in peak form while your own teammate refuses to help you.
McLaren’s Nightmare Scenario
Here’s what keeps Zak Brown awake at night: what if Piastri’s refusal to help costs Norris the title? What if Verstappen sneaks through and wins his fifth championship because McLaren couldn’t get their drivers to cooperate?
The team have the fastest car. They’ve got two drivers with seven wins each. They should be cruising to a drivers’ title. Instead, they’re watching their equal-treatment policy potentially hand the championship to their main rival.
But here’s the flip side: what if they ordered Piastri to move aside and he refused? What if they prioritised Norris and it destroyed their internal harmony? What if playing favourites costs them both drivers in the future?
This is the bed McLaren made with their “we treat everyone equally” rhetoric. Now they have to lie in it. And it’s looking distinctly uncomfortable.
The Delicious Irony of It All
There’s something beautifully absurd about this situation. McLaren have spent years criticising other teams for favouring one driver over another. They positioned themselves as the progressive alternative. The team that lets their drivers race.
And now? Now they’re discovering exactly why most championship-contending teams eventually pick a number one driver. Because when the title is on the line, “letting them race” can backfire spectacularly.
Ferrari tried the equal-treatment approach with Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. How’d that work out? Red Bull learned their lesson after Webber and Vettel. Mercedes eventually prioritised Lewis Hamilton over Nico Rosberg, then Valtteri Bottas.
McLaren thought they could be different. Turns out, they’re just discovering the same painful truths everyone else already learned.
Two Races to Sort Out This Mess
Qatar this weekend. Abu Dhabi next week. Two races to determine whether McLaren’s idealistic approach to driver management was brilliant or catastrophically naive.
Piastri says he needs “other things to go my way” beyond just performing well himself. That’s code for “I need Norris and Verstappen to mess up.” Not exactly a strategy you can control.
But he’s not backing down. “I’m just going to try and have the best weekends I can, which I try and do every weekend, and see what happens to everyone else.”
Translation: I’m racing for myself, not for Lando’s championship dreams. Deal with it.
The Question Nobody at McLaren Wants to Answer
So here we are. Three drivers separated by 24 points. One team with two of them refusing to cooperate. A four-time champion on a hot streak. And two weekends to sort it all out.
Will McLaren stick to their principles and let Piastri race freely, even if it costs Norris the title? Or will they panic, issue team orders, and destroy the harmonious relationship they’ve spent all year cultivating?
Because let’s be honest: if Verstappen wins this championship while the two McLarens are busy fighting each other, nobody at Woking is going to be talking about the moral victory of treating their drivers equally.
They’ll just be explaining how they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Again.
