Oscar Piastri has heard the noise. He’s also not buying the insinuation.
On Thursday in São Paulo, the McLaren driver knocked back Jos Verstappen’s suggestion that he should “bang [his] fist on the table” inside Woking and pushed back at any hint his title push is being undercut from within. With four race weekends left and a single point splitting the McLaren pair at the top of the standings — Max Verstappen lurking 35 behind — Piastri chose calm over fire.
“We’re always very open with each other,” Piastri said when asked about Jos Verstappen’s remarks, which questioned whether McLaren is truly prioritising both drivers equally. “We can stand up for ourselves and feel very comfortable doing that. That’s encouraged by the team.”
He didn’t flinch at the broader implication. “Do I feel sabotaged? No. It’s not the case.”
The context matters. Through the first half of 2025, Piastri was relentlessly tidy — barely off the podium through 15 rounds — and looked every inch a title favourite. The last five weekends have told a different story: one podium, four straight without a rostrum, and a costly first-lap exit in Baku that dented momentum and confidence from the outside looking in. Meanwhile, Lando Norris has rediscovered rhythm and Max Verstappen has rejoined the conversation.
Jos Verstappen didn’t tiptoe. “Piastri hasn’t suddenly forgotten how to drive, has he?” he told De Telegraaf this week, arguing that Piastri or his management should be stronger internally to protect his reputation in a tight championship fight.
Piastri took the higher road, acknowledging the awkward reality of two teammates going for one crown and keeping his focus squarely on the job. “It’s a difficult dynamic when two cars in the same team are fighting for a championship that only one can win,” he said. “But I respect the team allowing us to both try and fight. For myself, I want to go out there and win it on my own merit.”
And if you’re looking for a conspiracy, Piastri’s not here for it. “The last couple of weekends have been a little bit trickier, but we’ve got pretty clear answers on why that’s the case,” he said. “Everything is explainable.”
He drew a line under Baku — “a messy weekend from start to finish” — while offering a more clinical diagnosis for Austin and Mexico: execution was decent, the pace wasn’t, and the reasons are on the data. “We’ve got some evidence as to why it’s not been there,” he said. “The question of why some things haven’t been working the last couple of weekends, and why some things have been… I’m not sure we’ll ever know the answer to that. But knowing there’s a difference is the biggest thing.”
That’s quintessential Piastri: measured, quietly firm, and deeply detail-led. He’s not the slam-the-door type, but don’t mistake that for passivity. Inside McLaren, by his account, feedback loops are open and blunt — “making our point for ourselves, individually” — and the team has resisted the temptation to tilt the table toward one garage with so much at stake. “If you pick one driver,” he said with a half-smile, “you’ve a 50 percent chance you’re not going to be that driver.”
Still, the temperature is rising. Norris has been the form man since late summer, and Piastri’s lap-time delta has occasionally drifted in ways that jar with the season’s earlier sample size. That invites all the usual murmurs about intra-team currents, development directions and set-up forks that can subtly favour one driving style over another. Piastri didn’t deny there have been differences in how the car’s needed to be driven lately — “there are questions on why some differences have cropped up in terms of how I need to drive” — but he was adamant those are normal swings, not something sinister.
The bigger picture is compelling and precarious. McLaren’s run has shoved both drivers into the title frame together, the purest kind of headache for any team principal. Keep it fair and risk losing points to the outside rival; choose a number one and risk losing the other driver — and the garage — in the process. So far, McLaren’s tried to walk the tightrope. Piastri, at least publicly, is fine with that.
It sets up a fascinating final push. Piastri’s task is simple in concept and complicated in reality: reset the form, rediscover the early-season groove, and make the one-point gap to Norris disappear in the right direction. He doesn’t need a fist on the table; he needs clean Saturdays, clean first laps, and the kind of mid-stint authority that turned him into a championship leader in the first place.
“My job is to go out there and win it on my own merit,” he said. No drama. No daggers. Just a reminder that, even in a title fight brimming with noise, there’s still a driver who’d rather let the lap time do the shouting.
