Are McLaren Putting Oscar Piastri at a Disadvantage?

After many races full of battles between the two McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, fans are speaking out about what they believe to be McLaren putting Piastri at a heavy disadvantage.

(Image credits to ABC News)

In the last couple of races, things have been escalating between the two drivers. With a crash in the Austin Sprint and a small coming together in the Singapore GP, fans are wondering what is going on within the team.

At the very start of the Singapore Grand Prix, title rivals Lando and Oscar made very slight contact, and many believed Lando was at fault for not leaving enough room for Piastri on the outside. Oscar described it as “barging” at the time and accused the team of not being on his side, as they didn't intervene much at the time

A week later in Austin, during media day, Lando Norris said that he was facing “repercussions” within the team for the move he had pulled the weekend before. This led fans to believe that McLaren would now prioritise Piastri partly due to the fact he was leading the Drivers' Championship at the time, but also as a punishment to Norris for causing the contact. McLaren or their drivers never disclosed what the repercussions were.

Later during the weekend, during the sprint race start, the McLarens had big contact, taking both of them out of the sprint race. Although no penalties were handed out, people thought Oscar was more at fault as the crash started after a change in direction he made that caused contact with Nico Hulkenberg.

Since then, Oscar Piastri hasn’t had the pace to match his teammate, highlighted at the Mexican GP with Norris winning and Piastri missing out on a podium. Obviously, fans have many theories on what's going on within the team, whether the gap between drivers is because of shifts in mentality, their different levels of experience or something else going on within each car.

Heading into the Brazil Grand Prix weekend, fans hope for good quality racing and to keep the championship close between the final contenders.

Article Written by Isa Charlton