After missing out on the world championship, Oscar Piastri admitted McLaren’s style of racing throughout the F1 2025 season made for some uncomfortable moments.

Piastri led the points standings by 34 points after 15 of 24 events, but ended the year third, 13 points behind teammate Lando Norris and 11 back from Max Verstappen.

Oscar Piastri offers his opinion on ‘papaya rules’ after title loss

Following the Dutch Grand Prix, Piastri was the odds-on favourite for the title.

He held a comfortable margin over Norris, his only real challenger, who’d been forced out in Zandvoort with an oil line issue.

But with McLaren standing steadfast to its commitment to equality of opportunity for its drivers, it didn’t double down on the Australian’s advantage.

At the very next race, he was asked to move aside after a slow stop hampered Norris’ progress in an Italian Grand Prix won by Verstappen.

It was arguably the most overt use of team orders all season, from a team that had insisted that it wouldn’t employ the tactic. Indeed, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown told PlanetF1.com in May that he was prepared to lose the world championship if it meant he didn’t have to quash the chances of one of his drivers.

For the most part, the team’s actions were consistent with that messaging.

In Australia, there was a brief neutralisation as the weather closed in and Norris and Piastri, running at the head of the race, closed in on backmarkers.

In Japan, Piastri was not waved by his teammate into second and granted the opportunity to attack Verstappen – if he was genuinely faster, he can do it on track, else the exact order of the cars doesn’t actually make much difference in the team’s eyes.

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And even in Britain, when Piastri was slapped with a harsh penalty for a Safety Car infringement, McLaren refused to penalise the other car in order to address the situation, leaving Norris to win his home grand prix.

Then, in Monza, the team issued an instruction that intentionally penalised its driver – albeit to return the status quo prior to an unusually slow pit stop.

Thereafter, Piastri fell into a slump and his advantage was eroded by an in-form Norris and the relentless Verstappen.

Crashes in Baku, an incident in Austin, a tough weekend in Mexico, and another crash in Brazil all conspired to hurt Piastri’s points tally before a strategic blunder in Qatar arguably cost him victory.

Through it all, despite claims of conspiracy and sabotage against Piastri, the squad maintained a united front, committed to its chosen path.

“It is a testament to the way we go racing,” Piastri insisted in the wake of his world championship defeat.

“Obviously, it’s not easy fighting for both the Constructors’ Championship and the Drivers’ Championship with two very evenly matched drivers, but ultimately, that’s a problem we knew we were going to have.”

McLaren dominated the opening half of the season, and locked the Constructors’ Championship away at the Singapore Grand Prix.

However, by refusing to prioritise one of its drivers, it found itself exposed to the resurgent Verstappen as Red Bull found a way to unlock the inherent pace within its RB22.

It’s an approach that nearly cost both Piastri and Norris the championship, the Dutchman falling just two points shy of a fifth consecutive title.

Even still, support remains strong for the way in which McLaren elected to approach racing in F1 2025 – and appears set to continue next season.

“At the end of the day, I think there’s a lot of good things that come from that,” Piastri said.

“Yes, there’s difficult moments and tension at times, but I think both Lando and I have become better drivers from pushing each other to the limit.

“Sometimes that’s been uncomfortable for everyone, but ultimately it’s been a good thing.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions through the year, and I’m sure we’ll have discussions in the off-season about anything we want to do slightly differently for next year.

“At the end of the day, they gave us both as good a chance as the team could have to fairly fight for a world championship. That’s all you can ask for.”

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