Oscar Piastri isn’t playing wingman. Not yet.
With two race weekends left in the 2025 season and 58 points on the table thanks to a Qatar Sprint, the Australian says McLaren did talk—briefly—about whether he’d throw his weight behind Lando Norris’ title push. The verdict was simple.
“We had a very brief discussion, and the answer is no,” Piastri told media in Qatar. “I’m still equal on points with Max and have a decent shot at still winning it if things go my way.”
The picture is clear enough: Norris arrives in Lusail with a 24-point cushion. Piastri sits second on countback ahead of Max Verstappen, level with the Red Bull driver but ahead thanks to grand prix victories. That’s the math. The form book, though, has leaned Red Bull’s way since the summer break, Verstappen racking up a heavy haul as he and the RB21 found their rhythm in the back half of the year.
That swing has put McLaren’s once-rosy 1-2 in jeopardy, and it’s made the “team orders” debate impossible to ignore. Zak Brown and Andrea Stella have repeated for months that they won’t script results while both orange cars are mathematically alive. Piastri’s position backs that up.
He’s also realistic. Even if he nails the final two weekends, the title might not be in his hands.
“There’s still a chance—it’s happened that way a couple of times before—so I know it’s not impossible,” he said. “But I also know it’s a bit of an outside shot. Even if I have perfect weekends, I need other things to go my way. I’m very aware of that. So I’ll just try to have the best weekends I can and see what happens.”
There’s a subplot here that could cut either way for the No. 81: help from others. Piastri could use rivals to chip points off Norris—Mercedes and Ferrari have had cameos at the sharp end lately—but if that rival is Verstappen, the arithmetic gets awkward fast. The Australian isn’t betting on any favors.
“Every weekend there’s a challenger. Max has been there more often than not in the second half, but we’ve seen Mercedes be quick at certain points, and Ferrari in the mix as well,” he said. “Regardless of the championship picture, everyone is going out there to fight for wins and podiums. I’m not expecting anyone to make life easy.”
It’s been a curious run for Piastri since his commanding Dutch Grand Prix victory, a high watermark that’s been followed by a podium drought stretching seven rounds. The raw pace hasn’t evaporated—far from it—but it hasn’t been converted, whether through messy Saturdays, strategic dead ends or the thin margins that have defined this season.
He called his Brazil weekend “weird” after a scrappy qualifying and a Sprint crash that left him with more homework than highlights. Las Vegas looked better on outright speed—“when I had clean air, the pace was pretty good,” he noted—but Q3 didn’t come together, and the race unraveled with a couple of unforced errors.
Qatar should suit McLaren more, at least on paper. Lusail rewards high-speed balance and front-end confidence, both MCL38 strengths when the window’s open. The surface is grippy, the temperature swings are manageable, and the Sprint format gives Piastri two bites at scoring if Friday lands right. He sounds quietly bullish.
“Yeah, confident, I would say. It’s a circuit I enjoy and one I’ve done well at in the past,” he said. “We’ve found a lot of improvements in those kind of conditions. It’s obviously a much higher-speed track, very consistent tarmac, maybe some wind around, but pretty consistent temperatures at least.”
As for any idea of orchestrated outcomes at McLaren? Park it for now. Unless the numbers force their hand, the team appears set to let this one breathe. Norris leads, yes, and the title is his to lose. But Piastri’s still got skin in the game, and he’s not about to give free air to anyone—not even the guy parked one garage over.
No choreographed finishes. No handshakes on lap 56. Just two papaya cars, pointed at a championship that could yet swing again.
