Ralf Schumacher slams claims McLaren favour Lando Norris as “complete bulls***”

Ralf Schumacher has dismissed claims that McLaren are favouring Lando Norris over teammate Oscar Piastri in this year’s F1 title fight, branding the theories as “complete bulls***.”

Norris sits one point clear of Piastri in the drivers’ championship following the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The British driver dominated Sunday’s race in Mexico, winning by over 30 seconds.

By contrast, Piastri struggled again for pace, finishing fifth behind Haas’ Ollie Bearman.

It was the second race in a row where Piastri lacked performance relative to Norris.

As a result, some fans have speculated that McLaren may be favouring Norris, given his long association with the team.

Schumacher has rubbished such suggestions.

“That theory is really complete bulls***, sorry. Absurd. Lando then explained it very well himself,” Schumacher said on Sky Germany’s F1 podcast.

“There’s more going on here and I would almost say it amounts to bullying behaviour. I find it incredible what is being spread around in the media right now. So much nonsense is being circulated.”

“I want to say one thing about this and I heard it from a reliable source: Zak Brown doesn’t favour anyone, he doesn’t care.

“As long as one of his drivers wins the world title, the name doesn’t matter. He’s a businessman. As nice as he may be, he is tough.”

McLaren’s view on Piastri’s struggles

McLaren have explained that Piastri’s recent difficulties are linked to Texas and Mexico being low-grip track surfaces.

Team principal Andrea Stella clarified that Norris’ driving style simply suits these circuits more than Piastri’s.

By his own admission, Piastri conceded that he needs to adjust how he drives when grip levels are low.

After the race, Piastri told Sky: “There was a lot of fight out there, yes. Difficult to know. I felt like the whole race I was right behind someone.

“I was just struggling with the dirty air so that was pretty difficult. I think for me the biggest thing is trying to learn the things that I want to learn today. Yesterday, it became obvious after the session that there were a few things I need to change pretty majorly in how I was driving.

“Today was firstly trying to limit damage but also trying to learn some things about that.

“If I’ve made some progress with that then I will be happy. When your teammate wins the race, finishing fifth is nothing that extravagant.”