{"id":262367,"date":"2025-11-04T16:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T16:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262367\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T16:55:08","slug":"bernie-ecclestone-questions-if-mclaren-are-holding-oscar-piastri-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262367\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernie Ecclestone questions if McLaren are \u2018holding Oscar Piastri back\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that McLaren may be holding Oscar Piastri back in the 2025 F1 title race.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Piastri lost the lead of the F1 drivers\u2019 championship following the Mexico City Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He sits one point behind teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/912058\/lando-norris\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lando Norris <\/a>with four races to go.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Piastri has struggled for pace in recent rounds, finishing a distant fifth in both Austin and Mexico City.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Since the summer break, Piastri has won just once and scored only two podiums.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As a result, his 34-point advantage over Norris has been overturned.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Piastri\u2019s lack of pace in the last two races has led to wild theories of sabotage or suggestions that McLaren are favouring Norris.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">McLaren have explained that Piastri\u2019s driving style hasn\u2019t suited low-grip circuits, suggesting that\u2019s the reason for the gap between the two drivers.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Ecclestone, who ran F1 up until 2017, has given his view on the title battle between the McLaren pair.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Initially, Ecclestone thought Piastri would take the title, but he feels \u201csomething\u2019s holding him back\u201d.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Speaking to sport.de, Ecclestone said:\u00a0\u201cWhen the season started, I thought our Australian driver would be world champion. I thought he would win easily but something\u2019s holding him back.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI don\u2019t know what it is. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s McLaren holding him back or what. There was a bit of a problem inside the team I understand where it looked very much they were favouring the British driver.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Ecclestone feels that Norris has more \u201cstar quality\u201d in terms of being centre stage on TV and in front of the camera.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As a result, Ecclestone thinks it would be better for McLaren as a team if Norris came out on top at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI think he would fall into the star quality more,\u201d Ecclestone added.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI think from that point of view. I think he would act better. I think he likes the TV, he likes the camera, he likes whatever. I suspect the journalists [like him]. I suppose that\u2019s better for McLaren.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen \u201ca little bit special\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/852\/max-verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Verstappen<\/a> remains in title contention heading into the final four rounds of the year.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/xpb_1365814_hires_0.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Max Verstappen\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Max Verstappen<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Dutchman is just 36 points off the lead, having won three of the last five races.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Ecclestone praised Verstappen, describing him as \u201ca little bit special\u201d.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about that. The car is super. They\u2019ve done a good job with the car. Max is a little bit special,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHe\u2019s a race driver. He gets on with what he\u2019s supposed to be doing. He\u2019s not political. He\u2019s a race driver.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that McLaren may be holding Oscar Piastri back in the 2025&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,913,806,805,803,804,2333,85],"class_list":["post-262367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-mclaren","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262367","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=262367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}