Oscar Piastri has rejected the “villain” label on Zak Brown after fans accused McLaren of favoring Lando Norris in the 2025 Formula 1 title race.
The McLaren driver had been in contention for last year’s title all season long, with Piastri leading by 34 points after 15 rounds, but his efforts collapsed in the final nine races and Norris emerged victorious.
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But as Piastri’s campaign unraveled, Australian fans became frustrated, claiming McLaren wanted its champion to be a British driver who joined its academy as a teenager. It’s not the AUD it took away from Alpine in the summer of 2022, there were three separate incidents late last year that fueled the 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 teammate while overtaking and, despite Piastri’s protests, was not told to return to his position. Piastri also cost himself a chance to win in Qatar with a strategic error, although the team also denied Norris a chance on the podium.
So when, a week after the Qatar race, an Australian politician claimed the team was biased against Piastri, costing him the title, McLaren CEO Brown blasted it as “ignorant and uneducated”.
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Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren
That’s because throughout last season, McLaren fiercely maintained its stance on the Papaya Rules, which gives both drivers equal treatment and is expected to last until 2026.
So when a question was put to Piastri ahead of this weekend’s season opener in Melbourne about how Brown had become a “villain” in Australia, the 24-year-old said: “Zac and I have a really good relationship and I think the longer we know each other the stronger the relationship becomes – he’s really fun and great to be around.”
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“I think he and Andrea [Stella] They are two people with completely different styles but work well together. But no, Zach and I have a great relationship.
“Obviously, we as a team, not necessarily Zach and I, went through some tough moments last year like any team. But I think our relationship is only going to get stronger because of it.”
So Piastri will certainly not listen to outside advice calling on him to refuse the team’s orders more lest he become Norris’ No.2 driver.
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Quite simply, the Melburnian has insisted last year that doing so would hurt in the long run, as the aim was to ensure he had regular opportunities to compete for the title at McLaren.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Norris held that same sentiment then and still does, and he also followed the team’s orders from time to time, leading to an unusually friendly intrasquad title race in 2025.
“We will always race in the best interests of the team,” added Piastri, who even finished behind world champion Max Verstappen in the championship at the end of last year, who was undoubtedly No. 1 at Red Bull.
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“I think we’ve always had the freedom to play for our own individual results. Maybe in some situations we didn’t always make perfect decisions, but I think the important thing for me is there was never any bad intention.
“We learned a lot and knew we could do things differently, we could do better. But I have nothing to prove. I certainly don’t have rebellious tendencies or anything like that.
“I think a very quick way to make sure you don’t win a championship is to go against your own team. I don’t think that’s a very smart move, but, yeah, we’ve definitely had discussions and worked on things that we can do better this year.”
Also read:
Lando Norris: ‘McLaren will not start F1 2026 at a disadvantage’
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