Never mind social media’s conspiracies, a question of whether “McLaren is biased against Oscar Piastri” has been raised in an Australian parliamentary hearing.
McLaren’s stranglehold on the Drivers’ Championship evaporated in Qatar on Sunday when Max Verstappen clinched the win to close the gap to Lando Norris in the standings to just 12 points. He also overhauled Piastri for second.
‘So do you think McLaren is biased against Oscar Piastri?’
It a startling turnaround in form, Piastri led the championship by 70 points ahead of Norris and 104 up on Verstappen after the Dutch Grand Prix. But now, eight races later and with only remaining in the season, he’s dropped to third.
The 24-year-old went into the Qatar weekend tied with Verstappen on 366 points, 24 down on Norris, but a strategy blunder from McLaren when it didn’t pit the drivers behind a Safety Car on lap 7 threw not only the 1-2 in the standings into doubt, but even the title.
But while social media’s reaction was expected, that Piastri’s woes reached the halls of Australian politics was not.
Speaking during at Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee hearing, Senator Matt Canavan asked the Committee for its opinion on McLaren’s tactics and its treatment of Piastri.
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Turning to department secretary Jim Betts, Canavan said: “It’s been a bit of a frustrating night for some Australians.
“I don’t know who to ask this to, but you deal with transport and cars. So do you think McLaren is biased against Oscar Piastri and costing him the World Championship?”
Betts: “You’re asking me an opinion?”
Putting the question to Regional Affairs Assistant Minister Anthony Chisholm, Chisholm replied: “I definitely think he’s copped some raw decisions this year.
“As someone with a daughter who has become obsessed with F1, she will be very upset when she gets up this morning.”
McLaren has vowed to hold a “very thorough” investigation over its Qatar strategy that could yet be what costs the Woking team the 1-2 in the Drivers’ standings, perhaps even the World title.
Asked directly by PlanetF1.com after Sunday’s race if McLaren had effectively given 25 seconds away to Verstappen by deciding against pitting its drivers, Stella said: “I think, in terms of the outcome of the decision, that’s a fair interpretation.
“Effectively, we have conceded one pit stop to a rival that was fast today.
“Obviously, we did it for a reason. The reason was that we didn’t want to end up in traffic after the pit stop, but obviously all the other cars and teams had a different opinion in relation to a safety car on Lap 7.
“Everyone pitted and this made our staying out ultimately incorrect from a race outcome point of view.
“And like I say, because Verstappen was fast, and also because the tyre degradation was low, ultimately this decision was significantly penalising because clearly Oscar was in control of the race and deserved to win it and we lost the podium as well with Lando.’
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