1 week ago
47
Formula One hero Alan Jones has rubbished claims that McLaren have shown favouritism to Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri, with the Australian branding the speculation as ‘nonsense’.
Piastri had enjoyed a sensational start to the Formula One season, taking a 34-point lead at the top of the World Championship at the Italian Grand Prix.
It was in Monza, though, that his season would begin to unravel, with Piastri sensationally being ordered to cede back second place to his team-mate Norris, following a slow pit stop, which angered the 24-year-old Aussie.
Later at the Singapore Grand Prix, Piastri fumed once again over the radio after Norris made contact with Max Verstappen, who subsequently made contact with the Australian.
Stewards did not investigate the incident, with McLaren maintaining Piastri should keep his position during the race, with the Brit going on to finish in third, one place ahead of Piastri.
‘That's not fair. I'm sorry, that's not fair,’ he said over the radio. ‘If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate, then that's a pretty **** job of avoiding.’
Ex-Formula One driver Alan Jones has rubbished claims that McLaren are showing favouritism to Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri (pictured)
Jones (pictured) was the last Australian to win the Drivers' Championship in 1980
Norris (pictured) has taken the lead in the Formula One World Championship and leads Piastri by 24 points
A nightmare in Baku would follow, with Piastri crashing out of the race and branding it the ‘worst weekend of racing ever.'
Since then, Piastri has failed to secure a podium, with his team-mate, Norris, taking the lead at the top of the Formula One World Championship.
A conspiracy has begun to develop among some, who have claimed that there has been a perceived favouritism by McLaren towards Norris over his team-mate.
However, Jones, the last Australian to win the Formula One Drivers’ Championship back in 1980, stated that theory was ‘absolute c***’.
‘That is the greatest load of nonsense of all time,’ Jones told ABC Sport.
‘Every single season we come across this bulls***. It’s either Mark Webber against Sebastian Vettel. It’s always: “He’s got a better car than me”, or “He’s getting preferential treatment”.
‘It’s absolute c***. I mean, these teams don’t spend an absolute fortune travelling around the world to stymie one car or give preference to the other. I can assure you that both these cars are getting the same sort of treatment.
‘And I know Zak Brown very well. He’s a good racer. He’ll be giving both these blokes equal chances.’
Piastri had led the Drivers' Championship by 34 points heading into the Italian Grand Prix. Questions were raised over McLaren's order to Piastri to cede his place to his team-mate Norris
McLaren boss Zak Brown (pictured) has denied that there has been any favouritism
He believes that the arguments claiming that Norris was getting preferential treatment ahead of Piastri came from ‘human nature’ and that Piastri’s drop-off in form, despite winning seven races at the start of the season, were ‘just the ups and downs of Formula One.’
‘If it was tennis, I swear to god they’d be saying they were giving the bloke the wrong racket or something,’ he said.
‘It’s just rubbish. And then you get all the rear experts coming out of the woodwork giving their opinions on this, that and the other and half of them wouldn’t know one end of the car from the other. But they’re free to give their advice whether it’s needed or not - it’s just nonsense.’
Piastri, meanwhile, has denied any favouritism.
‘No, it's not the case,’ he said ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix. ‘You know, I think the last couple of weekends have been a little bit trickier, but we've got pretty clear answers on why that's the case.
‘There's not really too many mysteries on what's kind of happened.
‘I think there's some questions of kind of why some differences have cropped up in terms of how I need to drive and stuff like that, but there's, yeah, everything is explainable.
‘So there's definitely none of that going on.’
Jones believes Piastri (pictured) was harshly handed a 10-second penalty during the Brazilian Grand Prix
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has also insisted there is no preferential treatment being given to one driver over another, stating to The Associated Press that his team were competitors.
‘No chance,’ Brown explained. ‘We’re racers’
Reflecting on last weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix, Jones believes Piastri’s 10-second penalty for making contact with Kimi Antonelli was harsh.
‘Having that penalty given to him on the last race was a bit of a shame. I thought it was ridiculous,’ Jones said.
‘In my opinion, it was a racing incident. When you’ve got 20 cars going into a corner in the first lap of the Grand Prix you’re always going to have people banging and crashing.
‘I think forcing out that penalty on Oscar was ridiculous. I’m not casting any aspersions, but it just so happens that Johnny Herbert is English and he’s on the stewards. Guess what nationality Lando is? So you can speculate all that until the cows come home.’
Piastri went on to finish in fifth in Sao Paulo, with his team-mate putting more distance between himself and the Australian at the top of the Drivers’ Standings.
He holds a 24-point lead over Piastri with three races remaining.
