'Where's Oscar?' Lando Norris team-mate missing from McLaren celebrations

McLaren

'Where's Oscar?' Lando Norris team-mate missing from McLaren celebrations

The team were celebrating their double championship success

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 13 December 2025 17:07

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A team picture at McLaren's Woking headquarters celebrating their historic 2025 F1 season had one notable admission... Oscar Piastri.

The 2025 season saw McLaren claim their first championship double since 1998, with drivers' champion Lando Norris becoming the first McLaren driver to win that prize since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

Norris claimed championship success last weekend, when he clung on to third place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to finish ahead of Max Verstappen in the standings by two points.

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The 2025 world champion has been on somewhat of a victory tour since his title win, picking up his trophy in Uzbekistan at the FIA prize giving gala, before taking that trophy to Woking for a team celebration.

Taking to their social media pages to round off the season, McLaren posted a 'last team pic of the year', with the team, including team principal Andrea Stella, gathered around Norris with the two championship trophies and a pit board that read 'LANDO - Drivers' World Champion 2025.'

But missing from the picture was Norris' team-mate Piastri, leading some to question why the Aussie was not present at the celebrations.

"Where's Oscar? Bit disappointing not to even include both drivers," one fan wrote.

Another fan commented with a picture of Piastri, and wrote: "Team pic you say."

Piastri also played a peripheral role in the team's celebration of their constructors' championship success at the Singapore Grand Prix, which some F1 fans were left unhappy about.

However, that was quickly cleared up, with the reason being given that Piastri had headed straight for the media pen due to the fact that he had not finished in the top three at that event.

There could be any number of reasons why Piastri wasn't in this latest team photo, particularly considering the team were in Uzbekistan last night for the FIA prize giving gala, and F1's winter break starts now before a speedy return to the track in January for pre-season testing.

Norris McLaren's favourite?

Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone recently fuelled the flames about McLaren's driver favouritism, stating that it was on show at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

McLaren asked Piastri to give up his position in Monza to Norris after the Brit had experienced a botched pit stop, and that led to a title race swing of six points.

The Woking-based outfit said that they had made this call with fairness in mind, with them not wanting a botched pit stop to hamper one driver's chances of claiming the 2025 championship.

"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."