Max Verstappen: I’d tell McLaren to 'f*** off' over helping Lando Norris

Max Verstappen admits he’d tell McLaren to “f*** off” if he were in Oscar Piastri’s position and asked to help his teammate’s title bid.

Lando Norris could win the 2025 F1 drivers’ title at this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix.

The British driver is 24 points clear of Piastri and Verstappen - who are level on points - in the championship standings.

Norris had one hand on the title after the Las Vegas Grand Prix. He was 30 points ahead of Piastri and 42 ahead of Verstappen before the McLaren pair were disqualified for excessive plank wear.

With Verstappen still firmly in the title hunt with two rounds remaining, there have been suggestions that McLaren should back Norris to avoid a 2007-style scenario where Ferrari pipped both McLaren drivers to the crown.

Kimi Raikkonen won the 2007 championship by a single point ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

McLaren have insisted that they want to keep things “fair” between their drivers, even if it means Verstappen comes out on top.

On Thursday in Qatar, Piastri confirmed that there had been internal discussions at McLaren over whether he would be forced to help Norris, revealing that he’s still allowed to focus on his own title pursuit.

Verstappen’s view

Verstappen has backed McLaren’s decision to allow Norris and Piastri to race each other, despite the threat posed by Verstappen himself.

“No, it’s perfect,” he said. “I think you can’t do a better job than allowing them to race as well because why would you suddenly now say that Oscar wouldn’t be allowed anymore?

“I mean if that was said to me I would have not rocked up! I would have told them to f*** off.

“If you’re a real winner and a racer as a driver then you go for it. Even if you are behind, what’s the point otherwise to turning up?

“Otherwise you can easily just label yourself as a number two driver which I think he doesn’t want to be.

“I know that I’m equal in points with Oscar. A lot still needs to go right [for Piastri or Verstappen] but I think it should be like that, that they are free to race and hopefully we can make it a great battle till the end.”

Giving his view on the title after McLaren’s double DSQ, Verstappen added: “It’s definitely a better chance than what it was before that, so we take it.

“You need to also be aware that even if you win everything, you still need a bit of luck.

“So we’ll see how that goes. For us, nothing changes. We go all in. We have nothing to lose.”