![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
It completed a significant comeback for Norris, who trailed Piastri for 15 rounds and fell to 34 points off the lead at the Dutch Grand Prix with nine rounds remaining.<\/p>\n
Piastri\u2019s sudden tumble from what looked like a comfortable lead sparked a raft of conspiracy theories over favouritism at McLaren, with the teams sometimes controversial application of its so-called papaya rules appearing to benefit the Briton.<\/p>\n
The matter made it all the way to parliament, where Senator Matt Canavan asked during a committee inquiry whether \u201cMcLaren is biased against Oscar Piastri\u201d and if that was \u201ccosting him the world championship\u201d.<\/p>\n
Anthony Chisholm, an assistant minister, replied: \u201cI definitely think he\u2019s copped some raw decisions this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Piastri having declared that he \u201cgot a fair shot\u2019 at the title last year, some remain convinced that McLaren is fighting more strongly in his teammate\u2019s corner.<\/p>\n
The McLaren CEO clapped back at Canavan last year in the lead-up to the title decider, but the American said it would be incumbent on his team to block out the noise this year as Piastri and Norris reignited their rivalry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be frustrating when some people \u2014 this isn\u2019t country specific \u2014 are very uninformed and the statements you see are just ridiculous,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Oscar has communicated many times, he knows he\u2019s getting a fair shake at it. You win some, you lose some. Things fall your way, things don\u2019t fall your way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost Oscar some points [last year]; we lost Lando a lot of points in Holland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we just need to keep our head down and stay focused. The people that matter most to us know that we bring total sporting fairness to our racing team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shame that people in parliament, who I would say are pretty far removed from understanding Formula 1, vocalise things like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t dare \u2014 because I\u2019m not knowledgeable \u2014 comment on the job they\u2019re doing, but I bet I could make some comments.\u201d<\/p>\n
3-Peat?! – McLaren unveil 2026 livery | 00:38<\/p>\n
The debate over sporting fairness will rumble into 2026, with McLaren tipped to compete at the front again and with both Piastri and Norris likely to reignite their internal battle for supremacy.<\/p>\n
The closeness of their battle last year forced McLaren into compromising positions several times, starting with the team orders at the Italian Grand Prix, which Piastri said mentally hung over him during his career-worst weekend in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n
The team twisted itself in knots over first-lap collisions in Singapore and in Austin, and it catastrophically opted not to pit either driver during an early safety car in Qatar in part because it didn\u2019t want to negatively affect one driver more than the other.<\/p>\n
The precedents set by each occasion made enforcing the rules more complicated, but team boss Andrea Stella said in 2026 the decision-making process would be \u201cstreamlined\u201d.<\/p>\n
Piastri, who tended to lose points through McLaren\u2019s interventions, said a modified approach would prevent the \u201cheadaches\u201d of 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will look different,\u201d he said. \u201cStreamlining it is a wise decision to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a general principle and a general way of going racing, it does bring a lot of positives with it; it\u2019s just how we refine that to try and keep it to just positives, basically.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome tweaks for sure this year, but I think it\u2019s pretty clear that we still want to go racing as much as a team as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown, however, said the difference in approach will be minimal, with the team sticking with its fundamental ethos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere won\u2019t be much change, because they were free to race last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually talk to the drivers race by race. While we do a season review and a season preview, we\u2019re kind of like a racing car we\u2019re always developing how we go racing on a race-by-race basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey continue to be free to race. We will be strategic and intelligent when situations arise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren will block out the noise from \u201cuninformed\u201d critics as it seeks to provide Lando Norris and Oscar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[2095,13273,240165,1724,240166,64,14017,63,689,961,240164,240169,54203,2055,31207,240171,817,240163,813,816,2105,1737,159452,62999,825,2041,2067,677,16260,240170,240168,16193,25598,199190,942,2812,240162,85,31283,3370,51041,2614,240167,12000,2086],"class_list":["post-470169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-america","tag-andrea-stella","tag-anthony-chisholm","tag-asia","tag-assistant-minister","tag-au","tag-austin","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-azerbaijan","tag-career-worst-weekend","tag-committee-inquiry","tag-conspiracy-theories","tag-constructors-championship","tag-decision-making-process","tag-drivers-race","tag-f1","tag-first-lap-collisions","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-lando-norris","tag-maiden-world-title","tag-matt-canavan","tag-max-verstappen","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-qatar","tag-race-by-race-basis","tag-raw-decisions","tag-regulation-changes","tag-safety-car","tag-season-preview","tag-singapore","tag-south-eastern-asia","tag-sporting-fairness","tag-sports","tag-team-orders","tag-texas","tag-title-decider","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-vocalise-things","tag-western-asia","tag-world-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470169","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=470169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}