McLaren drivers battled all season for last year’s title and after 15 rounds Piastri led by 34 points, only for his efforts to fail in the final nine races as Norris became champion.
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But as Piastri’s campaign unraveled, frustrations arose in Australia with fans claiming McLaren wanted its champion to be the British driver who had joined its academy as a teenager. Not the Australian that took Alpine from him during the summer of 2022, and there were three separate occasions late last year that fueled this fire.
The first was Monza, where McLaren ordered Piastri to hand second place back to Norris after a slow pit stop. Then in Singapore, the Briton collided with his team-mate mid-overtake and was not told to return to the position despite protests from Piastri, who also lost his chance to win in Qatar due to a strategic error, although the team also cost Norris a podium finish.
Consequently, it led to an Australian politician claiming the week after Qatar that the team is biased against Piastri and cost him the title, which McLaren CEO Brown criticized as “uninformed and uneducated”.
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Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren
This is because during last season, McLaren tried steadfastly to maintain its papaya rules stance, which grants equal treatment to both drivers and is expected to continue until 2026.
So when the issue was put to Piastri ahead of this weekend’s season opener in Melbourne about how Brown became a “villain” in Australia, the 24-year-old said: “My relationship with Zak is very good and I think it’s gotten stronger the more we get to know each other – he’s definitely a lot of fun and good to have around.
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“I think he and Andrea (Stella) are two people with very different styles who work well together. But no, the relationship between Zak and I is good.
“Obviously, we as a team, not necessarily Zak and I, had some tough times over the past year like any team. But I think our relationship has gotten stronger from that.”
So Piastri is definitely not going to listen to outside advice, asking him to refuse the team’s orders more often to avoid becoming Norris’ number two driver.
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Simply put, last year the Melbourne native always maintained that doing so would cause long-term damage, as the aim is to ensure he has regular title opportunities at McLaren.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
The same view was, and is, held by Norris, who has also obeyed team orders at times, leading to what was an unusually friendly intra-team title fight in 2025.
“We will always compete for the best interest of the team,” added Piastri, who at the end of last year even finished behind Max Verstappen in the championship, the world champion who is a clear number one at Red Bull.
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“I think we’ve always had the freedom to compete for our own individual results. Maybe sometimes we haven’t always made the perfect decision, but I think the important thing for me is that there’s never been any bad intentions about it.”
“We’ve learned a lot about things we can do differently, things we can do better. But I have nothing to prove. I’m certainly not going to have a rebellious streak or anything like that.
“I think a pretty quick way to make sure you’re not going to win a championship is to go against your own team. I don’t think it’s a very smart move, but yeah, we’ve definitely had discussions and worked on things we can do better this year.”
Also read:
Lando Norris: ‘McLaren will not be on the defensive’ at the start of F1 2026
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