Max Verstappen's DAD wades into McLaren civil war, urging Oscar Piastri to fight back against team boss Zak Brown's call that could cost him the F1 title

While there is no doubt that Max Verstappen's father would love to see his son complete a remarkable comeback to seal the 2025 F1 driver's championship, he has gone in to bat for Aussie Oscar Piastri.

Jos Verstappen, whose own promising F1 career was punctuated by a series of accidents, injuries and mishaps, has made the extraordinary step of urging Piastri and his manager to fight back against McLaren. 

Piastri's 2025 Formula 1 season has turned from a dream run into a McLaren civil war.

The Australian stormed to seven wins and led the championship by 34 points after the Dutch Grand Prix, but a string of mistakes and clashes with teammate Lando Norris have seen that lead vanish.

Norris now sits one point ahead after Mexico with team boss Zak Brown insisting both drivers are free to fight and that there will be no favouritism.

But the in-house rivalry has stopped McLaren from finishing off four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen, who's quietly stalking them just behind.

Piastri's jump-start crash in Baku and failure to convert big results in recent races have only added pressure.

Heading into Brazil, he desperately needs victory to stop the rot, silence the noise, and keep Verstappen from stealing a title that once looked his to lose.

The 2007 Formula 1 season saw an eerily similar situation to McLaren's current Oscar Piastri–Lando Norris feud. 

Back then, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were teammates at McLaren, locked in a fierce internal title fight that ultimately let Kimi Räikkönen and Ferrari sneak through. 

Despite the parallels, Brown is not backing down and bristled at suggestions McLaren should favour one driver over the other, stunning media by saying he would rather they both lose the title.  

'We're well aware of 2007. Two drivers tied on points, one gets in the front. But we've got two drivers who want to win the world championship. We're playing offence; we're not playing defence.

'I'd rather go - 'we did the best we could with our drivers tied in points, and the other beat us by one,' than the alternative - telling one of our drivers right now, when they're one point apart, 'I know you have a dream to win the world championship, but we flipped a coin and you don't get to do it this year.' Forget it.

'That's not how we go racing. If 2007 happens again, I'd rather have that outcome than any other that involves playing favourites - we won't do it.'

The whole scenario is playing directly into Red Bull and Verstappen's hands.

But his father Jos has urged former Aussie F1 star Mark Webber, who manages Piastri, to fight back against Brown's directive. 

'I find what's happening at McLaren quite strange,' Jos told De Telegraaf. 

'Piastri hasn't suddenly forgotten how to drive, has he?

'If I were him, or his manager, I would bang my fist on the table internally. 

'Because now everyone is wondering whether he can handle the pressure. And that's not good for your own name, Piastri's in this case.'

'If I were Piastri, I would fight back now. Everyone assumed he would become champion, and that image has now changed very quickly.'

A defiant Piastri is doing his best to shut out the noise, and still believes he can not only win in Brazil, but claim his maiden F1 title.

'I mean, people can think what they want to think, right?' he told Sky Sports.

'But for me, I know that I've still got what it takes to win the championship. Yeah, there's been some bumps along the road, but there's been bumps along the road for everyone this year at different points.

'So I'm confident I've learned a lot of helpful things, from the last couple of weekends in particular. And I'm confident as well that I can still perform at some of the heights of success we've had this year.

'There's still a lot of laps to go this year, and I'm very confident I can still win.'