James Hinchcliffe says Oscar Piastri has been subject to a ‘very un-Formula 1’ rule at McLaren

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McLaren have taken a ‘unique’ approach to managing Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris amid their Formula 1 title battle, James Hinchcliffe says. The F1TV pundit has rejected any notion that one driver is being favoured.

Some in the F1 paddock think Norris has received preferential treatment, though this may be inadvertent. He has benefitted from most of McLaren’s team order calls this season, with Piastri letting him through at Monza and briefly being told not to attack him in Australia.

McLaren also refused to invert their cars after Norris barged his way past Piastri at the start of the previous race in Singapore. The Australian publicly criticised the team over the radio, calling the decision ‘not fair’.

James Hinchcliffe defends McLaren for ‘unique’ management of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris

Typically, when two teammates are going for the title, their bosses simply dictate that they can’t crash into one another. McLaren’s involvement is far more extensive.

They won’t hesitate to interfere from the pit wall to correct any perceived injustices, some of which may be put down to luck. They want both of their drivers to have an equally fair shot at victories and, ultimately, the title.

This interventionist philosophy stands in sharp contrast to the days of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at the same team, or Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes. But speaking on the Fast and the Curious podcast, Hinchcliffe suggested it was the best way to keep both drivers happy.

Piastri has been linked with McLaren’s rivals since Singapore, which may indicate that the plan isn’t working. But Hinchcliffe has told him to remember the events of Hungary last year, when Norris facilitated his first win by moving over after an artificial undercut.

“It’s hard to argue with what they’re doing when you look at how successful they’ve been,” he said of the back-to-back constructors’ champions. “The desire to keep the tensions down and the relationships strong between Oscar and Lando is a smart move.

“They’ve got two very good drivers that both want to drive for McLaren for a long time. McLaren have said they would like them to drive for them for a long time, and the quickest way to erode that future together is to allow the drivers to really start to hate each other.

“Anybody that thinks they favour Lando over Oscar, I’m just going to say, ‘Go watch Hungary 2024 again and tell me the same thing’. It’s a unique approach, it’s a very un-Formula 1 approach, but times change.

“We’ve seen it go so poorly the other way. We’ve seen the Nico-Lewis, we’ve seen the Ayrton-Alain battles. We’ve seen how it can go south.”

What Mark Webber is doing behind the scenes at McLaren

Mika Hakkinen says Norris’ ‘experience’ could be key in the title fight with six races remaining. The Briton graduated to F1 in 2019, four years before Piastri.

Equally, this is both drivers’ first time navigating a championship battle. Piastri has been lauded for his resistance to pressure but he made two major errors in Azerbaijan, crashing out of both qualifying and the race.

He can at least lean on the support of Mark Webber, who never won a title but did come close with Red Bull in 2010.

F1 insider James Allen says Webber is arguing Piastri’s case behind the scenes, though he played down the notion that the 49-year-old was ‘irate’ after Singapore. He’s holding McLaren to account rather than aggressively pursuing an agenda.