Rising F1 paddock suspicions that McLaren ‘favour’ one driver in title fight

There are growing suspicions in the F1 paddock that McLaren may be favouring Lando Norris in the 2025 title fight, it has been claimed.

McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Norris are engaged in an exclusive intra-team battle for the world title this year, with Piastri holding a 31-point advantage with eight races remaining.

The British squad have found themselves in the spotlight following a controversial driver swap in the closing stages of the Italian Grand Prix, which saw Piastri ordered to concede track position to Norris after he dropped behind his teammate following a slow pit stop.

McLaren’s sequencing of pit stops appeared to heavily influence the decision, after lead driver Norris had been given the option to stop first, but allowed Piastri to do so. The slow pit stop inadvertently saw Norris fall behind Piastri, prompting McLaren to take action to restore the original order.

The decision has been met with criticism and been the dominant talking point leading into this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Speaking on the Chequered Flag podcast, BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson reported that some people in the paddock increasingly think McLaren’s interference is a sign they are favouring one driver over the other.

“I want to be very clear about this - this is not me saying this, and this is not my opinion, I’m just reporting what people have said in the paddock - there’s a bit of groundswell of people saying, ‘It feels like McLaren are favouring Norris a bit’,” Benson said.

“I spoke to a senior member of another team about the Hungary situation and he thought it was very unfair of McLaren to allow Piastri to get beaten by Norris in the way that he was in Hungary, because Piastri was the lead driver there.

“I don’t know, I’m not privy to the internal workings of McLaren, but every public utterance they make, whether it be on the record or when you talk to them privately, there’s no sense of any kind of favouritism being brought into play, quite the opposite in fact. They’re constantly talking about fairness and equity.

“But in the paddock, people are going, ‘It feels like they’re inadvertently favouring Norris, even if they don’t mean to’.”

McLaren decisions raise question marks

Former F1 driver and fellow BBC pundit Jolyon Palmer said McLaren’s “meddling to that degree” in Monza felt “a little bit uncomfortable”.

Responding to Benson, Palmer suggested that paddock rumours could ultimately work in Piastri’s favour.

“I think that will work in Piastri’s favour because you want to start to put the seeds of doubt, even if the rumours are just there in the paddock, then McLaren want to be extra careful that they are not favouring Norris,” he explained.

“All of these things just play into the back of your mind. Oscar has to try and use this to make sure he at least doesn’t get disadvantaged again in the next eight races.

“The other one I was thinking of was Spa. Oscar had the first pit stop, he was the lead car, and then the next lap Lando pitted and they went quickly, instinctively for the hard tyre to the end of the race.

“It was a strategic difference that his side of the garage were allowed to make, to try and beat the other side of the garage, and it actually was the better tyre. It was by chance, but they managed to get it right by trying to do something different.

“So, again, if you are Oscar, you are thinking ‘hang on, when I’m the second driver, why am I not allowed to try something different?’. The answer I would say, if you speak to Andrea [Stella, McLaren team principal], was because Verstappen was winning the race and they were trying to win the race, whereas in Belgium and Hungary, they were winning the race so they allowed them to fight.

“That’s what McLaren would argue, but I still think, if you are the second driver, you are thinking ‘why can’t I do something different and try and overtake the first driver when I’m behind’.”