McLaren-Lando Norris favouritism claims shut down: “There’s no evidence…”

Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz has dismissed claims McLaren are favouring Lando Norris in this year’s title race.

Norris reduced Oscar Piastri’s lead to 22 points after the 2025 F1 Singapore Grand Prix.

The British driver pulled off an aggressive move on his teammate on the opening lap of Sunday’s race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Norris’ much-talked-about manoeuvre left Piastri fuming, given it resulted in contact between the pair.

Piastri felt aggrieved as Norris’ move contravened McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’.

The stewards saw no reason to take any action against Norris, and McLaren felt it wasn’t necessary to intervene as a result.

McLaren’s blasé reaction has led to suggestions that the two drivers aren’t treated equally.

Piastri was warned by McLaren at various races this year - Austria and Hungary - for attempting aggressive moves on Norris, even though there was no contact.

Norris’ long-term association with McLaren, having been part of the team since 2019 as a full-time driver, has led to claims the team would prefer him to win the title rather than Piastri, who was signed from Alpine.

“No evidence” of favouritism

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky F1 podcast, Kravitz said he sees “no evidence to suggest” McLaren are favouring Norris.

Kravitz is adamant it’s simply down to which driver is performing on track, rather than McLaren treating either driver differently.

Norris failed to finish the Dutch GP due to a reliability issue, whereas Piastri’s one DNF was caused by his own mistake.

“The other one that I have heard is that because Lando has been there longer, he’s somehow the favoured driver because Oscar has only been there for three years. Lando has been there longer,” Kravitz said.

“They would like Lando to win the championship because he’s been there longer. That’s hardly a reason and doesn’t stand up either. It’s down to the two.

“There’s no evidence to suggest and nothing that we’ve seen and heaven knows… if we had seen it and if we had a sense that McLaren want one driver to win over the other we’d be talking about it because we’re journalists and that’s a good story.

“We’re just not seeing it. We just don’t see any of this. It’s down to Melbourne. Melbourne was an interesting one as Lando won the race, Oscar spun and finished ninth. After that, Oscar got his stuff together and then was stronger in qualifying and closed that gap down.

“It was a 23-point gap wasn’t it that Oscar closed down and moved ahead. That was largely due to getting qualifying right and Lando was struggling with the handling of the car. It just doesn’t really stand up really.”