{"id":334543,"date":"2025-12-09T12:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T12:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/334543\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T12:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T12:38:08","slug":"oscar-piastri-expects-mclaren-fairness-policy-to-continue-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/334543\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri expects McLaren fairness policy to continue in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Laurence EdmondsonDec 9, 2025, 07:28 AM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>\u2022\u00a0Joined ESPN in 2009
\u2022\u00a0An FIA accredited F1 journalist since 2011<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri<\/a> expects McLaren to continue with a policy of “full fairness” and “equality” next season after teammate Lando Norris<\/a> narrowly beat him to the title this year.<\/p>\n

Piastri led the championship for more days than any other driver in 2025, but ultimately finished third in the standings, 13 points behind Norris and 11 behind Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McLaren tried to make a point of giving both drivers equal opportunities throughout the season under a policy known as ‘Papaya Rules’, but was regularly accused of favoritism towards Norris.<\/p>\n

Piastri said he expected McLaren to continue to offer both drivers a level playing field heading into 2026 and said he will not change his approach just because his teammate is now the reigning champion.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think that will change anything,” he said after Sunday’s season finale in Abu Dhabi. “For me, he’s obviously had a great season this year and a deserving champion, but he’s still Lando Norris. It’s not like he’s become Superman.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri finished third in the championship after leading from Saudi Arabia in April to the Mexico Grand Prix in October.\u00a0Andrew Ferraro\/LAT Images<\/p>\n

“So, I don’t think things will change with that. I’m expecting full fairness from the team and equality going forward. I don’t have any concerns that that will change at all. Clearly, Lando’s had a very strong season this year, and ultimately did a better job.”<\/p>\n

Piastri said McLaren’s efforts to give its drivers an equal shot at this year’s title led to some awkward moments but ultimately helped both improve.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

“Obviously, it’s not easy fighting for both the Constructors’ Championship and the Drivers’ Championship with two very evenly matched drivers,” he said. “But ultimately, that’s a problem we knew we were going to have.<\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, I think there’s a lot of good things that come from that. 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, yeah, it’s been a good thing.<\/p>\n

“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. But I think 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, and that’s all you can ask for.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laurence EdmondsonDec 9, 2025, 07:28 AM ET Close\u2022\u00a0Joined ESPN in 2009\u2022\u00a0An FIA accredited F1 journalist since 2011 Oscar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-334543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}