‘You’re a star’: The unseen radio message that summed up McLaren’s season as Norris sealed the title
It didn’t make the world feed, but it might be the most telling radio of McLaren’s year. Moments after Lando Norris crossed the line in Abu Dhabi to clinch the 2025 world championship, an excitable Zak Brown jumped on Oscar Piastri’s channel and cut through the noise.
“Oscar, what a season! You’re a star! Seven wins,” Brown boomed over Tom Stallard, Piastri’s race engineer, who’d just informed the Australian that Norris had done enough. “We love ya. We do it again next year. Thank you, Oscar, for everything you’ve done.”
Piastri’s reply was measured, the tone of a driver who’d just finished second on the day and third in the world. “Yeah, thanks everyone. Well done to Lando,” he said. “Tried our best to get there, but it wasn’t quite to be.”
Abu Dhabi wrapped a title fight that see-sawed all year and ended with a tight scoreboard: Norris champion by two points over Max Verstappen, Piastri a further 11 back after finishing second on the night behind the race winner. Norris’s P3 was enough, and just enough, to finally snap his maiden crown shut.
For Piastri, the end game stung because of how the middle chapters looked. No-one led the championship by more in 2025 than he did. After Zandvoort in late August, he had 34 points in hand over Norris and the confidence of a driver who’d made the field blink first. Then the momentum just… slipped. From that Dutch Grand Prix win, the Australian took only one podium in the next seven races. The title lead changed hands in Mexico in October. The climb back never quite materialised.
That dip, naturally, invited noise. McLaren faced accusations of leaning Norris’s way — fuelled by the call at Monza asking Piastri to swap places after Norris lost time in a slow stop. It travelled far; far enough that a member of Australia’s parliament stood up and queried whether McLaren was biased against its rising star. Piastri’s response to the sideshow was typically dry: “Quite impressive” to hear his name in Parliament, he said, even if he’d prefer different subject matter.
Inside the garage, McLaren kept batting away the idea of favouritism. Brown and team principal Andrea Stella both stressed a policy of total fairness, insisting the pair were treated as equals through 2025. The team’s Abu Dhabi radio is, in its own way, part of that picture. Brown didn’t need to say anything publicly to Piastri after the flag — he wanted to. Because the kid had taken seven wins and carried a title bid into the final race of just his third season.
Piastri himself framed the narrative cleanly in the paddock after the race. Norris? “A very deserving winner.” But he also added a line that tells you where his head is for 2026: “He’s still Lando Norris. It’s not like he’s become Superman.”
There’s a quiet conviction in that. Piastri expects the same “full fairness” next year, cape or no cape on the other side of the garage. He isn’t rattled by Norris’s new status; he isn’t looking for excuses either. “Lando’s had a very strong season and, ultimately, did a better job,” he said. Equal parts sportsmanship and steel.
The irony of McLaren’s year is that the toughest calls often came when the car was its most dominant. Two teammates in the same machinery, both in title contention, will always force awkward conversations. That’s the price of being in the hunt. Where it lands in the public domain tends to depend on which clips surface. This time, the one you didn’t hear — the boss telling his runner-up he’s “a star” — might be the most useful context of all.
Piastri leaves 2025 with seven grands prix to his name, long stretches spent leading the championship, and a cool head when the narrative got messy. Norris leaves with the big trophy. Same team, same fight again in 2026. If McLaren really does keep the scales level, the rest of us win too.
