F1 paddock shaking their heads after hearing McLaren’s latest Lando Norris message to Oscar Piastri

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McLaren stars Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will go into the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday separated by a mere 14 points at the top of the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship.

Norris has gradually reduced his deficit to Piastri from 34 points to 14 across each of the last four rounds in Italy, Azerbaijan, Singapore and the United States. But the McLaren men have also both lost ground to Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, who now trails Piastri by 40 points.

Verstappen left the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August facing a 104-point deficit to Piastri in the F1 drivers’ standings with nine rounds to go. But Red Bull’s floor update at Monza and front wing upgrade in Singapore have made the RB21 a match for the MCL39 at most tracks.

Additionally, Piastri crashing out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix saw Verstappen take 25 points out of the Australian’s lead. The Dutchman even took a further 23 points out of his deficit at the United States Grand Prix, helped partly by Piastri crashing into Norris in the COTA Sprint.

F1 paddock are shaking their heads at McLaren removing Lando Norris’ repercussions after Oscar Piastri’s COTA Sprint crash

Piastri crashed into Norris at the start of the Sprint at last week’s United States GP, when the 24-year-old tagged Sauber star Nico Hulkenberg on the exit of Turn 1 whilst he tried to get a cutback on his teammate. The German had Aston Martin ace Fernando Alonso on his inside.

READ MORE: Everything to know about the Mexico City Grand Prix, including past winners

And Piastri has shared ahead of the Mexico City GP that McLaren have already removed the sporting repercussions they put on Norris following the contact between papaya pals in the Singapore Grand Prix, as a result of the collision that took them both out of the COTA Sprint.

Norris banged wheels with Piastri at the start of the Singapore GP, as the Briton had to turn out into the Australian while fighting over third place after tapping the rear of Verstappen’s Red Bull at Turn 3. It was a racing incident, yet McLaren took action after an internal review.

Now, though, McLaren have dropped the repercussions that let Piastri pick when he wanted to go out on track in qualifying, and Norris had to comply, for the rest of the 2025 F1 season. And BILD reports that McLaren’s flip-flop has caused ‘head-shaking’ among the F1 paddock.

McLaren put themselves in an awkward position with Lando Norris’ repercussions after the Singapore Grand Prix

People in the Formula 1 paddock are shaking their heads at McLaren after telling Piastri that the repercussions they put on Norris are now void after only one round. The papaya pals are once again on a level playing field, as they fight to win a maiden F1 drivers’ title during 2025.

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McLaren put themselves in the eye of a storm by announcing ahead of the United States GP that the Woking outfit had given Norris unspecified sporting repercussions due to what was a racing incident in Singapore. It also left McLaren in an awkward spot after the COTA Sprint.

While the crash between Piastri, Norris, Hulkenberg and Alonso in the COTA Sprint was also a racing incident, the majority of the blame could be directed at Piastri. The Australian took an aggressive cutback without fully considering the position of the German or the Spaniard.

The crash also made McLaren flip-flop on Norris’ repercussions after just one round, and tell Piastri that the Briton no longer has to accept the Australian’s ideal qualifying running order. If McLaren did not flip-flop, they would have then left themselves in a very awkward place.