McLaren issues final four-race prediction in wake of conspiracy theories

Michelle Foster
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri speaking, Andrea Stella in the circle

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are sepeareted by a single point

Although Oscar Piastri was on the back foot to Lando Norris the last two races, Andrea Stella believes the final four race weekends, starting in Las Vegas, will have a more level playing field between the teammates.

His comments come amidst conspiracy cries on social media that McLaren has deliberately sabotaged Oscar Piastri to help Lando Norris win the World title.

Lando Norris v Oscar Piastri conspiracy: All you need to know

⦁ McLaren confident of level playing field in final four races
⦁ Andrea Stella doubles down on driving style explanation
⦁ McLaren’s confidence in the Drivers’ title has ‘increased’ after Mexico

Having last led the World Championship standings at round four, the Bahrain Grand Prix, Norris regained the lead by a single point ahead of his McLaren teammate Piastri at the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend.

The Briton claimed a dominant lights-to-flag victory while Piastri was only fifth, leading to a 15-point swing.

On a weekend where Norris did not put a foot wrong, Piastri struggled for pace as even on a good lap, he was six-tenths down on his teammate in qualifying.

McLaren put it down to track conditions and driving styles, with team boss Stella saying Norris dealt better with “hot tarmac, sliding tyre”. Piastri, he added, is “instead more of a driver for high grip, and that’s where he can exploit this incredible talent.”

That, though, did little to silence the cries of sabotage and favouritism that rang out on social media.

McLaren, instead of being drawn into that debate, believe there will be a more level playing field in the final four races, starting in Las Vegas, and that should put paid to those conspiracies.

“I think in the final four races, no reason to think that one may favour one driver or the other,” Stella told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets in Mexico City.

“Vegas, if anything, has proven to be a challenge for McLaren overall. Last year, we were not competitive. We needed to learn something, if anything, during the race, just to try and make some changes to see if we could stop the graining.

“I think for Lando and Oscar, there’s no problem in terms of track layout coming in the next four races.

“If anything, we need to make sure that, from a McLaren point of view, we are in condition to extract the full performance that is available in the car, like we have been able to do it here in Mexico.”

McLaren double down on track condition explanation

Although Piastri has seven pole positions on the board this season, the Australian fell short – and well short – of Norris in qualifying in the two most recent races, Austin and Mexico City.

Three-tenths down at the Circuit of the Americas, and six-tenths off the pace at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, fans on social media cried foul.

But dealing with hot and slippery track conditions at both race weekends, Stella insists that’s the explanation, nothing more.

The Italian reiterated that it was the track conditions that caught out Piastri in Mexico, and also in Austin, as he struggled to adapt to the car sliding around the track.

McLaren, however, worked with him overnight and Stella reckons he showed better race pace as he implemented those lessons.

“After qualifying,” he explained, “we reviewed with Oscar extensively, from a data, comment, video point of view, and I think we extracted some important information in terms of how the car needs to be driven in these special low grid conditions that we are facing here in Mexico, to some extent, like we said, similar to Austin, just the same.

“Similar conditions to Austin as well, and it looks like in this regime, you have to drive the car in a way that adapts to the fact that the car slides a lot and can slide and produce lap time.

“And this is not necessarily the way in which Oscar feels naturally that is producing lap time. So we work, we identified a few things that we could do with the car and a few things that he could do with the driving.

“I think Oscar should be very proud of himself, of how he has handled the transition from yesterday to today. We could see in the race that he was applying this. He definitely had a more competitive pace than yesterday, and it’s a bit of a shame that he was not in condition to fully use this pace, because we could not find the way to just get him out of traffic. He spent the entire race looking at the gearbox of the car ahead.

“But it’s important for Oscar that we go through this kind of experience in which we learn new tools to add to the toolbox, because that’s how you become the most complete version of a Formula One driver.

“This is also important for the next four races in which we’re going to find again, different conditions. So we need to be ready for all of them. I think Oscar should be very proud and happy with this race today.”

More on Lando Norris v Oscar Piastri on PlanetF1.com

Mexican GP conclusions: Big Norris chance, Verstappen illusion, new Hamilton document incoming

Mexico City Grand Prix driver ratings: Norris leads perfect 10s; Sainz sorrow

McLaren’s confidence in the Drivers’ title has ‘increased’

McLaren head to Las Vegas having finally put an end to Max Verstappen’s momentum after the Dutchman took points out of both McLarens four races in a row. In Mexico, although he beat Piastri, he was behind Norris. His deficit in the title race, though, was still reduced from 40 points to Piastri to 36 points to Norris.

Stella, though, is feeling more confident about McLaren’s chances.

“The confidence is that the championship is increased, is increased because we have proven that we have a car that can win races, and in some conditions can dominate races. This is the most important factor to put Lando and Oscar in condition to pursue the Drivers’ championship.

“I don’t think it’s about mathematics. I think it’s about competitiveness, and it was important to confirm this competitiveness.

“I think even when it comes to Oscar, even if he lost some points to Verstappen, I think Oscar has got a lot of learning from this weekend, and that’s sort of an investment that you make to make sure that you are competitive in every condition in the final part of the season.

“So overall, we definitely, team and drivers, will come out of this weekend encouraged and optimistic for the final part of the season.”

McLaren in a no-win situation, but 1-2 is still on the cards

One point, that’s all that is in the fight for this year’s World title. At least between the McLaren drivers.

At a time when Formula 1 is more polarised than ever been, even in the Prost/Senna wars or Schumacher versus the world, accusations of bias are set to fly in the remaining four races. And probably in the months, if not years, after the championship has been decided.

McLaren is having to walk a tightrope in balancing the interests of both drivers, something CEO Zak Brown vowed to do as he insisted to PlanetF1.com editor Mat Coch that he would rather lose the Drivers’ title than pull one driver out of the fight.

McLaren is in a no-win situation, at least in the court of public opinion. When one driver wins, it will be called bias, when the other wins, it will be favouritism.

The only thing the Woking team can do is stand by its policy of fairness, which to be fair, it has done but to the extremes this season, and hope that one driver doesn’t have a bad day as that will only open the door to yet more conspiracies.

One point separates Norris and Piastri nearing the end of a season in which momentum was with Norris before swinging to Piastri and now back to Norris. The next swing, if there is one, will decided the title. Not McLaren.

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Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

Read next: Norris responds to wild ‘given the championship’ theory after Mexican GP booing

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