Oscar Piastri’s Trust in McLaren Is Broken

McLaren won the team title in Singapore…but the team looks fragile regardless.

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McLaren’s win came with fresh contact between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri which passed without issue and a mounting perception that the pit wall tilts toward Lando. The pattern from Hungary 2024 may show how “hard racing” and team unity may be masking deeper trust issues. Despite the team achieving a major milestone given their history, Piastri’s championship bid is being constrained and his feeling unheeded…and whoever decided to allow Norris onto the podium for the special celebration did not help matters.

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McLaren’s Lost Control Of Itself

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Last Sunday felt like the day. The day when Papaya rules finally ended. Though based on what Oscar and Lando have shown us, it probably won’t be because they are just too conscientious or their hands are tied by contracts. If you came here from the winners and losers video, I thank you for heading on over. And for those of you who have just found this video, welcome. But allow me to summarize my stance from set outing. McLaren sealed their 10th constructor’s championship in Singapore, but the win was overshadowed by tension. In a bid to overtake his teammate and gain some more points, Norris tagged the back of the Staten, which then sent him into the side of Pastri, almost sending the Australian into the wall, and then Tempers fled from said Australian. The stewards called it hard racing. The McLaren pit wall accepted it as such, but it did reopen old wounds regarding what does papaya rules even mean? Well, what it means is that McLaren’s talks about fairness and equity are looking more fragile than ever. The team’s slogan of fairness is becoming more of just a brand identity rather than in actually having substance. And this is just yet another chapter of Woking’s history of shared opportunities between teammates as long as Ron Dennis has brought McLaren to the juggernaut that has historically become. Senna, Prost, Hamilton, Alonzo, heck, even Button and Magnus. You could even throw JB’s time with Czecho in there for good measure. It’s simply inescapable, but it’s just part of the course at McLaren. You get quiet reckonings and bruised egos. But, as I touched upon in yesterday’s video, it needn’t have been this way had McLaren just made Papy Rules just one rule. Hey, so long as Oscar and Lando don’t take each other out, then it’s all good. They can do what they want. Okay, fine. What Lando did would have been seen as hard racing and that would have been the end of that. We’d have thought, “Oh, Oscar’s been dealt yet another blow, but he’s still leading the championship. Let’s see what we can do in Austin.” But here we are. We’re talking about it constantly because McLaren keep changing the goalpost. We would have been excited about Lando closing the gap on Oscar that little bit more and then Vstappen closing his gap on Pestri more than Lando did. But McLaren’s constant sermons regarding fairness have just become a rod for its own back. They’ve created a monster with that particular term. The word papaya is meant to be associated with the team’s signature color. It’s now papaya become a pariah. Okay. Does that mean that Oscar, if he were to collide with Lando in a similar move, would get off scot-free in the same way, right? Because that’s what I think Lando and Oscar want. They want parity and clarity. And so far, I ain’t getting either of those things. But the story itself is unsettled. Where does Pastri stand in a team that seems to talk about equality but acts selectively? Especially when you get Lando himself saying that Papaya rules have never existed. What does that mean? Does that mean potentially that the rules don’t apply to him or it was a term that took a life of its own? But in any case, the evidence after the Hungarian Grand Prix of last year has set the swap precedent. Most formal calls that followed have leaned away from Oscar. But don’t worry, I’m not going to be complaining about 2024 because there was an element of justification as to why Oscar had to play the team game because mathematically he wasn’t in contention for a championship whereas Lando was. And most importantly, it was something that Pastry abided by. And that abiding went all the way to Brazil when he was instructed to let Lando pass for that extra point because points do mean prizes. And then come the sprint race in Qatar when it looked pretty much oh well Lando was completely out of it. There was no talk about swapping positions. There was no paying it back from the team. It was Lando who took the initiative and disobeyed the whole position command and gave back the win in that particular element to Pestre. For Lando that was a symbolic repayment after what Oscar did for him while the championship was on. And this year has shown that that particular pattern has persisted. Yet the roles have reversed where Oscar is leading the championship. In Australia, team hold seemed to box Pestre in more than they helped him, lifting only after he slipped up historically and Norris pushed on to keep the stapen at bay. In Japan, Oscar asked for a swap to attempt to pass on Vstappen, maybe securing a team win and maybe at least a three, but that was left on red. You know, even if the principle would have been that if Oscar was unsuccessful, he would have fallen back, restoring the original order. At Silverstone, Pastry asked for a particular swap after a misjudgment regarding procedure meant that he was given a penalty. And okay, that one was a little bit on the nose from Oscar since what he did behind the safety car with the brakes. That was a misjudgment. Some people thought that George was being aggressive with the brakes in Canada. No, Oscar in the wet when things could get really dicey and Bstappen had to take evasive action. Yeah, Oscar, that might have been a little bit reaching. But either way, that was still an order. That was not heeded. And all that left Oscar was in a sea of spray and that spray becoming red mist. And then Monza was the clearest case of Papaya rules just completely changing on the fly where Oscar was asked to give the place back even though he had done nothing wrong due to a pit stop error that was not associated with the Australian at all. And this was off the back of Pestri saving Norris’s bacon arguably when it looked really likely there was a real danger that Norris was about to fall out of Q2. The net effect of all of this is that apart from Norris’s good gesture in Qatar, all of the team calls that have been associated with Papyrus and the stuff that we have talked about have not benefited Oscar in any way, shape, or form and have either been neutral toward Lando or have actually helped him out a little bit. The only instance I can think of where it didn’t go Lando’s way, at least in terms of spectacular fashion, was an IML of this year, where Lando was not given the green light to go past Oscar. He had to do it the oldfashioned way. And even then, that wasn’t an order that was in Oscar’s favor. That was just down to radio silence. And the Norris comment that just suggests even further that these criteria only apply to Oscar so as to keep him in check since, well, he is proving to be an incredibly fast driver. I don’t think Oscar and Lando are demanding special treatment or anything like that. I think they do want equal status. And in terms of the car, I think they are very much equal. save for particular preferences regarding basic specifications. I don’t think performance patches or upgrades are being withheld like we saw last year and the year before that where Lando got first dib since well he was the more senior driver and Oscar had yet proven himself and in that capacity I think Pastri and his team are satisfied but it’s all coming down to procedure and what the pit wall is instructing their drivers and I think Singapore has been a moment where Pastri is now starting to think well wait a minute do the team really have my best interests at heart and are they really playing fair here that even though he has been a good team player there and has been helping out Lando more than any other team would ever do for their own particular driver. Can you see Max Vstafen ever doing that? Especially around Monzo when he was scoffing the idea of a swap due to a pit stop malady. It’s now maybe becoming clear to Oscar that maybe the team’s not really thinking about his own championship efforts when he himself has brought the majority of the constructor’s points which they celebrated on Sunday without him on the deis. And that seemingly the only genuine moment after Hungary which actually went the Australians way was a gesture from Lando. I don’t think Oscar’s beef is with Lando. I think his quarrel is mainly with the way the team is operating. The team that he supposedly believed wanted him wholeheartedly and unequivocally after they rescued him I say rescued him from Alpine and midfield mediocrity. Thanks to McLaren, we have seen Oscar at his full potential and that does make him a very important commodity on the driver market because all of those rumors about Oscar going to Ferrari, I mean they will not back down and if her comes back with a brand new team or buys out another team because he has been cleared that hearing is actually decided to go away thanks to an out of court settlement. He has said very clear Christian he rates Oscar Pastri and I think you can sense that McLaren is starting to think that Oscar could go rogue and maybe hoping desperately that he won’t because Stella’s postra quotes after Marina Bay were a really particularly telling read which I shall share with you for your consideration. EIM our review needs to be very detailed very analytical. It needs to take into account the point of view of our two drivers and then we will form a common opinion. We need to be accurate because there’s a lot at stake and a lot at stake is not only the championship points but also the trust of our drivers and the way we operate as a team. This is if anything even more foundational than the points themselves. So we will apply all the accuracy that is required in this case and all the conversations that are needed. Now that is very much crisis management. It’s very professionally spoken, but it is very much a sense that there is a trust problem mounting within that we are not seeing. It’s being kept behind closed doors. The only snifter of this animosity is what we got in Drive to Survive in the episodes PostHungary. And to be fair, Stella’s position is unenviable. Every call risks unsettling at least one of their stars. And that’s why we got that tidbit not that long ago that there is seemingly a procedure forming around Woking about how to handle things with the driver who doesn’t win the championship. But back to this comment, his emphasis on accuracy and trust, it really hints that there is a social factor at play behind the scenes, not essentially a racing one. Because once a driver is starting to really suspect an imbalance in the system, they are going to be calling them out constantly. If there is a call that Oscar may perceive to be going against him, we are going to hear him challenge that a little bit more, maybe even start to question it, maybe delay it like Lando did in Hungary, or worse for the team, completely ignore it, disobey it, and that would be the final nail in the coffin, and Papyrus will be well and truly dead. what Norris did to Pastri, whilst bombastic and really appreciated in terms of hustling for a world championship, it does signal that Papyrus right now is very much on life support and it’s up to Zach and Stella to get the defibrillator and go clear. Because all of that stuff of Oscar lamenting things and saying that’s just not fair. It’s because he was thinking, well, this is not what we discussed. This is completely different. But maybe Stella has hoped that Pastri will come back from the abyss before the next race. And yes, Oscar has voiced frustration in the past, but he has complied with controversial instructions before, notably that monster swap, and then all was well after that because Oscar knows the team game, albeit voicing his disapproval to the world. So, whilst I don’t see Oscar entering his villain arc or revenge arc, that’s why I’ve not titled the video as such, I do think that this is a very serious branching off point where McLaren really have to take this seriously since from Oscar’s point of view, the guy who’s leading the championship, Lando in his mind, flouted the whole don’t collide with your teammate angle. Again, let’s not forget what happened in Canada. I would imagine that Oscar’s first question after the Singapore race when things had calmed down a little bit would have been if the roles were reversed I wouldn’t be asked to be given the position back right and I think there is a really fascinating dynamic regarding the two drivers here because I think it’s become safe to say that Pastri most of the time the mask has slipped in recent races he is an algorithmic racer he is very clean very clinical very much keeps his cars close to his chest whereas Lando is completely the opposite his driving style is based on momentum and feel and right now the momentum is really building up and I think when Oscar’s engineer Tom Stallard got on the radio and went okay Oscar this is just like Hungary he was emotionally playing him and the pitwall toward an algorithmically based driver and given that Pastri is a more instinctive driver than Lando I feel like it actually will lead to a point where that instinctive driver will start to question his own procedures and I do think Oscar will be fighting back from now on in some way, shape, or form. It may be very subtle. It may not be bombastic like we’re all expecting in terms of the hype and the drama, but I think it will be there. Especially when you take into account the personal history that Zack Brown has with Lando Norris, their narrative with McLaren entwined for non a decade at this point. There is just cause to feel concerned that your own best interests Oscars are not being taken at face value. Now, I must point out that Lander going for it at that first section of corners knowing and seeing that overtaking has become quite the unlikelihood there was essential for his championship campaign. In his mind, nobody was taken out of the race. He did what he needed to do. He went for that gap, albeit it wasn’t a tidy one. And in his mind, if Oscar was in the position that he was, he would have done the same thing. That is hard racing, and it should be seen as hard racing. But unfortunately, the atmosphere that McLaren has generated in the past 12 months, especially has made us question these actions and calls and has just dolloped loads of cinnamon on the entire situation where we just don’t fully believe what McLaren is saying. They say something and we just go, “Yeah, right.” in either Lando’s direction or Oscar’s direction. There is just people just don’t believe the team anymore. And that is proof enough of the fact that we are still talking about that particular move even though the situation and debate has gone beyond that particular overtake. And yeah, maybe internally it’s not that big of a deal because we haven’t seen fractures within the garage. It’s been very much kept on the hush hush. Instead, that firestorm has gone outwards externally. And really, I don’t think McLaren cares because it’s creating drama. It’s creating hype. All publicity is good publicity, they say. And I do think the toxicity would have been in the garage at this time in normal circumstances, but it’s been transferred to the fandom and it’s almost kind of genius. The fans are furiously going at each other’s throats, yet all the while spreading the word of McLaren and getting people buzzed about the championship again after it getting a little bit dreary, whilst of course naturally appealing to outrage algorithms itself. Meanwhile, the team’s animosity, at least at the moment, is being kept in check. That’s why after the slow stop from Norris around Monza, it was very much made clear that the person that caused the delay was not to blame. So yes, I don’t think there is any internal drama going on at McLaren. At least not anything major or if there is anything, it’s being kept on a tight lead thanks to conduct and process. And I do think it’s working because Canada this year, it could have easily been McLaren’s Spain 2016 moment. But due to all of the processes in place, Lando got on the blower immediately and held his hand up. And it meant that really there was no fuel to that particular fire. And yes, Lando did get a 5-second time penalty, but he didn’t have to serve it at the next race. And any particular drama regarding that move was kept to the online world. And considering that Oscar’s really good at tuning anything out, he doesn’t really give away any tells. And Lando and Lando himself admitting that he’s doing his best to ignore what’s being said about him online. It means that we can say whatever we want and they won’t care. And as as far as McLaren is concerned, that’s absolutely fine by them. But regardless, the spectacle of papaya rules is now becoming more and more self-sufficient. And I think McLaren, either intentionally or not, is feeding it. The evidence is mounting up to suggest that Pastri may not be receiving his fair share of support or the opportunity to speak his mind in the moment and perhaps change the course of a decision. It meaning that McLaren can actually discuss the instance after the race. So to talk matters through with evidence, a calmer mind once the adrenaline had worn off, and obviously away from the cameras and any microphones, but we’re all on to that now. And the way that the radio conduct has been carried out, there’s nowhere to hide anymore because with F1 TV subscribers, you can easily just tune in to Pastry’s radio feed or Norris’s radio feed to get the entire picture. And what was really telling is that I saw a particular screenshot of the McLaren Plus app where you can actually see the transcriptions. Pastri after the first couple of laps was not mentioned at all. It was all Norris’s radio feed. And then we get to the podium stunt. Oh, that backfired, didn’t it? Because dragging Lando Norris back onto the podium with what should have been a celebration of the crew, that was tonedeaf. And whoever was in charge of that in McLaren’s PR department, yeah, that wasn’t a good call. Especially since you look at the evidence and the elements of the FIA’s policies and conduct regarding podiums, it had already been green lit. According to the very good articles from the race and ESPN, F1’s broadcast group had a constructor’s title celebration cued as a if it happens, we can roll it sort of thing on the podium. Hence, we got the graphics. And Formula 1 management reportedly floated the idea to McLaren earlier in the weekend, then activated it after the podium finished. That’s why it looked so slick and we had those prepared assets. It means that McLaren didn’t orchestrate it themselves, only that F1 was ready to package a TV moment if the opportunity came. But then you might be thinking, well, wouldn’t the FIA be agrieved by all of this since it is very much going against the conduct of being on the podium? Well, the thing about that is that it can be arranged or sorted out or smoothed over given what we see in the sporting regulations of the FIA under appendix 5. In that podium choreography is governed by an FIA appointed master of ceremonies. Anything extra on the podium happens only if the master allows it. In Singapore, as we saw, the master of ceremonies clearly granted permission for McLaren to do what they wanted and to bring anyone onto the podium to celebrate this obvious milestone. Especially reasonable since it didn’t disrupt the actual top three celebration. So, the team did have cart blanch to bring on board whoever they wanted and they could easily have just waited that little bit longer to give the green light to Liberty Media and the FIA to say, “Okay, we’re ready to go. Oscar’s done his commitments or we’ll drag him out for a little bit then bring him back in later on or if there is a fine we’ll pay the fine because they did wait a very long time last year to celebrate fully the 2024 constructor celebrations and I know that many people will be saying well wait a minute maybe Oscar didn’t want to be up there and in that case he consented not to be there well given the fact that he looked at it and he looked particularly morose if there was a hint that Oscar was not best pleased and they wanted to telegraph fairness in a really equal manner, especially when things were really sensitive. They would have not dragged Lando back on. They would have made sure that neither driver were up there. And that would have been perfectly fine since this is the team title, not the driver’s title. And I know the drivers are part of the teams, but this should have been a moment where the people that we don’t usually get to see get their time to shine. And after that, the clown can do whatever they want. They can choreograph whatever they want. And that’s exactly what they did with their photographs. But to be fair, the many, many photographs where it was just Oscar, Orlando and Oscar, very much looked like damage control from the social media team. Because regardless of protocol and procedure and approval from the FIA, the master of ceremonies, it was all telegraphed to display an element of favoritism. It did not do that celebration them any favors. And this was the icing on the cake of all of the speculation regarding flashoints in the year, radio calls going one driver’s way more than the other. And then due to the access that we have of watching Oscar in the media pen whilst the team celebrates, it creates that juxtaposition which gets people talking, not in a good way. So even if logistics actually explain the optics, I don’t think people care. It’s taken a life of its own now. In any case, the way that Oscar has handled this has been calm enough to make the team squirm and not point the finger at him specifically because he didn’t fly off the handle in the media pen. If he had, the onus would have been on Pestri for not conducting himself properly. He did voice his disapproval, but he focused on the team’s achievement and any questions related to the incident. He said that he needed to talk with the team first before making any further comment. So, yeah, he wasn’t exactly killing with kindness, but he was certainly not fanning the flames himself. that McLaren’s optics now have become radioactive because based on previous precedents, there should have been some immediate rebuking or queries or genuine talks and debates after the particular class which saw the two drivers collide and one almost going in the wall. The driver’s concern should have been taken a little bit more seriously. Then followed up by a constructor celebrations which framed Lando up there with the team and Oscar was not. Each particular instance can be explained on its own, but when you stitch them together, it’s just becoming a really concerning patchwork, which I don’t think McLaren can easily explain away anymore. I don’t think Lando himself is demanding this. He wants to win this championship fairly. It just makes Pastri out to be the adult that has to take the short straw and be gracious about it. And that perception is equally fueled by history because Zach and Lando have history, calling him at some points a franchise driver, then locked him into an extended deal. And fans do connect those dots when judgment calls break Lando’s way, even if the intent is procedural. It certainly doesn’t help that up until recently, Zack Brown had financial ties to Lando’s business world, where he served as a director of Quadrant Esports, only resigning July, the same day that Lando’s vehicle, Celler Promotions, seiz significant control of the venture. That is not rumored reports. That comes from the UK government’s website, Company’s House. You can look it up for yourself. And that is only going to fuel the narrative even more that there is a degree of partiality and maybe some people thinking you’re getting the cinnamon out again is that Lando winning the world championship would be the perfect ending to Zack Brown’s autobiography. The truth is probably duller, more logical, more human, but it’s been buried by months of speculation and months of mixed messages. And Stella’s warnings about trust read prophetic because McLaren’s credibility is cracking under its own PR. Mercedes and Red Bull right now. Oh, they’re quickly picking up the pieces whilst Papaya politics dominate the headlines. And until McLaren applies its rules with painful consistency or just drops them all together, sticking to F1’s single commandment of not hitting your teammate, one of these drivers will always look like the victim. Be it Oscar or Lando. And right now, Oscar has become the protagonist of grievance. you know, he complies, he surrenders track position or he doesn’t go to take a track position and then is expected to believe that the system is truly neutral. And again, history hardens that perception and it makes it really difficult to try and explain otherwise. And I don’t think McLaren can control the narrative anymore. I think they have really lost the narrative. They’ve lost the plot. Do they want to though? I simply don’t know. Do they believe that Oscar is faithful enough to not rock the boat? Or maybe Max Vstappen turning the screw in his own way, shape, or form. Or George Russell getting in on the act. Well, whatever happens, McLaren has certainly not painted a pretty picture, or at least not as pretty as they think they painted. You can measure downforce, but you can’t calibrate trust. The team has once again succumbed to toxicity in a way they simply cannot escape. And we have seen for upwards of three or four decades, no matter what they do. And what you should perhaps do is stick around and take a look at this particular video which I in and YouTube think you will like very much. I’ll go and see you over there. Different closer.