The noise around McLaren team-mates and Formula 1 title contenders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri has been greatly amplified ahead of this weekend’s championship showdown in Abu Dhabi.
Norris is in the best position to win the F1 title for the first time as he holds a 12-point lead over Red Bull driver Max Verstappen while Piastri is four points further back.
All three appeared together in an FIA press conference on Thursday in Abu Dhabi but that was the only media commitment either McLaren driver engaged in - playing a part in fresh and wild claims that have stoked further dissent while the team and its drivers try to focus on a pivotal weekend.
‘Bias’ talk in Australian parliament
The developments in Abu Dhabi began with a bizarre story from Australia, where Piastri’s name and the suggestion of McLaren bias were brought up in a parliamentary committee hearing.
Whether it was intended to be a light-hearted half-joke and/or political point-scoring by being the champion of a compromised national hero, the notion of a team deliberately hurting its driver’s championship chances being raised in any government forum is unusual to say the least.
At the very least, it speaks to the narrative that has cut through very clearly in Piastri’s home country - but is also prevalent in discussions among F1 fans online and inevitably is a talking point in the F1 paddock too.
In this case, it went from a social media storm to being mentioned in a senate rural and regional affairs and transport legislation committee hearing, because of McLaren’s awful decision in the Qatar Grand Prix last weekend not to pit its cars, or at least Piastri, under an early safety car – which cost Piastri the win.
This limited the gain Piastri made on Norris and allowed Verstappen to jump him in the standings, turning Piastri into the clear outsider of the three this weekend and fuelling a narrative of bias that has been building all season.
“I did see it reach parliament,” said Piastri on Friday. “That’s quite impressive.
“The support from back home has been really special. I obviously don’t see a huge amount of it. I’ve not been back to Australia since the grand prix.
“But I think the fact that Formula 1 and regardless of why it was in Parliament, the fact that my name is in Parliament in Australia is pretty cool in some ways.
“I guess it signifies the magnitude of the support and the following that we've had back home. So that's very, very cool to see, and I’ll try my best to bring it home for everyone.”
More wild claims in Abu Dhabi
With one round remaining the potential for distraction has reached critical mass.
An Australian media report published on Thursday in Abu Dhabi alleged that Piastri has been banned from speaking to his national media while Norris continues to hold briefings with UK press.
This was part of an article that cited several anonymous sources claiming bias against Piastri from McLaren.
In addition to mandatory obligations on Thursday at F1 races – which means either attending the FIA press conference or holding an open media session instead – Norris has typically held a dedicated session with UK national media as well.
However, the story’s lead claims are incorrect as McLaren has not banned Piastri from speaking with Australian outlets and Norris did not conduct his usual UK media briefing in Abu Dhabi.
What has happened is that McLaren opted not to schedule any discretionary media commitments at all in Abu Dhabi. So, no specific requests for one-to-one access have been granted - for Australian media but also any media, including The Race, and even typical extra commitments with broadcasters including F1’s own broadcasters and Sky Sports.
This policy actually led to another claim, that Norris’s title-showdown anxiety had prompted him to cancel his usual media appearance for the first time in his F1 career.
However, it is understood to have been driven by McLaren. Neither driver requested to have no additional media commitments but the team decided to go this way to allow focus to be on weekend preparation as much as possible.
Where it really comes from
When asked about equality within the team earlier this year Piastri said he does not believe Norris gets preferential treatment.
“I'm very happy that there's no favourism or bias,” he said in Austin in October.
Still, McLaren has had to field questions about favouring Norris for several months.
It was initially due to specific in-race calls like the Norris strategy switch in Hungary that led to him winning instead of Piastri, and then in Italy when Piastri got ahead of Norris through an accidental undercut then a slow pitstop for Norris and McLaren ordered him to let Norris past.
Then Piastri’s slump in form, particularly a very difficult back-to-back in the United States and Mexico, led to suggestions that he had been held back in some way to help Norris to overturn the points deficit and build an advantage.
McLaren has always been resolute that it has no preference which driver wins the title and detailed how Piastri’s US/Mexico struggles - and to an extent Brazil too - had technical explanations rooted in the grip levels and driving demands of those tracks, combined with the two drivers’ preferred styles.
Piastri also felt this explained those particular difficulties and that subsequent weekends in Brazil and Las Vegas were made to look worse because of other circumstances.
He then returned to his earlier form with a superb performance in Qatar, in which he should have won both the sprint race and grand prix from pole position.
However, the belief that Piastri is still not getting equal status is a part of the McLaren discourse that cannot be eradicated.
This is shown by some believing that Piastri’s FP1 absence in Abu Dhabi is further evidence of conspiracy – even though it is simply due to the mandatory requirement to field a rookie driver in a certain number of sessions in the season and Abu Dhabi is one of the least relevant FP1s all year because it’s a daytime session on a dirty circuit.
