F1 giant launches fresh favouritism accusation against McLaren

Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that McLaren have favoured British driver Lando Norris this season over Oscar Piastri.

The two McLaren stars have been involved in a championship battle throughout the whole of the 2025 season, with Piastri leading the championship all the way from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in April to the Mexican GP in October.

Since then, however, it's Norris that has taken over and steadily built a gap, to the point that it is at 16 points with one race remaining in Abu Dhabi.

In fact, Piastri's drop off in form means that Max Verstappen is actually now Norris' closest challenger, 12 points behind the Brit ahead of the title showdown weekend.

There have been conspiracy theories circulating among social media users that McLaren have been favouring Norris over Piastri, after the Australian driver was forced to give up his position to Norris at the Italian GP after the Brit had suffered a botched pit stop.

That decision from the McLaren pit wall meant that Piastri's lead was cut to 31 points, rather than the 37 points that it could've been, but they argued that their decision was built around fairness, making sure that something like a botched pit stop does not stop one of their drivers from challenging for the title.

Now, former F1 boss Ecclestone has given those conspiracy rumours a new lease of life, suggesting that they have favoured Norris.

"McLaren have been very helpful to Lando over Oscar," Ecclestone told the Daily Mail. "Supporting him over the other guy, such as changing them around in Monza after Lando had a bad pit stop, and that way of working may yet be good for them, I don’t know. It’s not what I would have done.

"A bad pit stop is part of racing. You have to accept it, not engineer it."

Will McLaren implement team orders in Abu Dhabi?

McLaren have had a dominant season overall, claiming constructors' championship success as early as the Singapore GP in September, but they are desperate for a first championship double since 1998.

Their last drivers' champion was Lewis Hamilton back in 2008, and CEO Zak Brown has stated that their main priority this weekend is making sure that a McLaren driver is lifting the trophy.

When asked by Sky Sports whether they would revert from their 'papaya rules' tactics in Abu Dhabi if it was looking like only one of their drivers could challenge Verstappen for the title, Brown said ahead of the weekend: "Yes, of course. We're realistic. We want to win this drivers' championship.

"We're coming into the weekend knowing that they both have equal opportunity, even though there's obviously a point spread.

"You don't know how qualifying is going to go, reliability, but if we get into the race and it's becoming pretty clear that one has a chance and the other doesn't, we're going to do what we can to win the drivers' championship. It would be crazy not to.

"We want to win the drivers' championship. So, we'll kind of see how the race plays out, but we're not going to not win the championship because we're trying to protect a third and a fourth or a sixth and a seventh, or however the situation may play out."

READ MORE: Papaya fools! McLaren have scared themselves into setting up a Max Verstappen title win

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