Oscar Piastri clearly rejects accusations of sabotage from Australia: McLaren acted fairly in 2025 – mistakes yes, malicious intent no.
What began as a heated fan debate ultimately ended up in the Australian Parliament. A national senator had publicly suggested that McLaren may have disadvantaged Oscar Piastri in the 2025 title race. Now the Australian himself has responded—and in no uncertain terms.
“Yes, I saw that,” Piastri says in retrospect. “And I think the most important thing I took away from it was simply how excited everyone was.”
The accusation itself? For him, it’s baseless. “There was definitely no malicious intent last year. And I think as a team, we know there are things we could have done better, things we could have done differently — and I know that too.”
Then he becomes unequivocal: “But at no point were there any malicious intentions and certainly no sabotage, as I’ve read a few times.”
Title fight with an open visor
The 2025 season was a high point for Piastri for a long time. Five wins in the first nine races, consistently strong, fully in the title race – initially against teammate Lando Norris, later also against Max Verstappen.
At the center of the discussion was McLaren’s philosophy: two equal number 1 drivers. The team let them race each other – with the clear rule not to take each other out of the race. For many fans, this was pure racing. For critics, it was a strategic mistake. After the strategy fiasco in Qatar, an Australian senator even raised the question of whether McLaren had cost his compatriot the world championship. Team boss Zak Brown had already reacted sharply to this, describing the politician as “very poorly informed and uneducated.”
Mistake yes – intention no
Piastri himself remains objective. “That’s part of racing. Some things go the way you want them to, some don’t.” He admits that not everything was perfect: “We know as a team that there were things we could have done better.” But that was an internal learning process – not deliberate action against him.
The decisive factor is how you react to it. “We’ve worked very hard to clean up some of the things we didn’t do right last year.”
The focus is now on the future – and the calendar is smiling on him. The 2026 season begins on March 6-8 with his home race in Melbourne. “I’m confident that we can do a better job overall in 2026,” says Piastri.
