Singapore<\/a>, McLaren later conceded Norris was at fault in a clash with his teammate.\u00a0<\/p>\n ![\"Australian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/103161663-0-image-a-23_1761011711921.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Australian driver Oscar Piastri has seen his lead eroded to just 40 points after a series of incidents through the season<\/p>\n
![\"McLaren](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/103161667-0-image-a-24_1761011716635.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
McLaren has been accused of favouring driver Lando Norris, despite Piastri having the superior record<\/p>\n
Under a one driver policy Piastri would have been awarded the place and a bigger buffer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier races in Hungary, Silverstone and Imola also presented opportunities for the team to lean in his favour.<\/p>\n
Had those decisions gone the other way Piastri would now be around 60 points clear of Norris and 63 ahead of Verstappen instead of seeing his lead steadily reduced.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That gap would have left him almost certain to secure the championship with several rounds to spare.<\/p>\n
It also would mean Norris would be battling hard to hold onto second place with Verstappen breathing down his neck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The scenario has drawn comparisons to McLaren’s 2007 campaign when Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso took points from each other before Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen stole the title in the final race.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McLaren chief executive Zak Brown has acknowledged the risk but says the team wants both drivers to have the chance to fight for the championship.<\/p>\n
‘If you have two drivers like in 2007, where they equalled in points and Kimi barely beat them,’ he said.<\/p>\n
![\"McLaren](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/103161669-0-image-a-25_1761011727428.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
McLaren CEO Zak Brown knows there is an element of risk but wants both drivers to compete for the championship<\/p>\n
![\"Team](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/103161661-0-image-a-26_1761011731257.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Team principal Andrea Stella said things could change depending on the mathematics towards the back end of the season<\/p>\n
‘But that’s how McLaren want to go racing. We want to have two drivers that are capable of winning the championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘On the flip side, when you get into one and two [drivers], that compromises your constructors championship. So it’s a difficult sport.<\/p>\n
‘Where we sit right now, we’re going to give both drivers equal opportunity to try and win the drivers championship.<\/p>\n
‘We’re racers. We want to go racing. We want both drivers to have a chance to win the championship, and that comes with some risk, like 2007. But we’re all aware of that and prepared that that could potentially be an outcome.’<\/p>\n
Team principal Andrea Stella has also said any call to prioritise one driver will only be made if the mathematics demand it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘We review our approach constantly, but we are a long way from being in condition to say that we are going to prioritise one driver over the other, especially as long as the chances are realistic for both drivers.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n The SHOCK position Oscar Piastri would be in if McLaren actually backed him this F1 season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lead over Max Verstappen has been shaved to just 40 points\u00a0 By JOSH ALSTON, SPORTS REPORTER Published: 22:11…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,100,817,813,816,51951,939,1737,825,2333,14640,942,588,85],"class_list":["post-229241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dailymail","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-formulaone","tag-hungary","tag-lando-norris","tag-max-verstappen","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-singapore","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}