Jolyon Palmer makes ‘paranoid’ Oscar Piastri claim as he questions McLaren’s fairness this season

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McLaren driver Oscar Piastri made his frustrations clear on the team radio at the beginning of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri was nudged out of the way by Lando Norris on the opening lap in Singapore, eventually losing three more points to his nearest title rival.

Piastri leads the drivers’ championship by 22 points heading into the United States Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen still lurking in the background.

If Piastri does end up losing the title to Norris, one of this season’s iconic images will be the Australian standing in the media pen at the Singapore Grand Prix with his McLaren team celebrating winning the constructors’ championship on the podium behind him.

Piastri claimed it was ‘not fair’ that Norris broke their main ‘papaya rule’ of no contact going into the first chicane in Singapore after he tapped the back of Verstappen’s car and bumped wheels with his McLaren teammate.

It’s the latest instance of Norris getting the rub of the green at McLaren since his engine failure at Zandvoort, and Jolyon Palmer has suggested that Piastri could start to get ‘paranoid’ based on how many decisions seem to be going the British driver’s way.

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Jolyon Palmer wonders if Oscar Piastri is getting ‘paranoid’ at McLaren’s decision-making

Palmer was addressing Piastri’s position within McLaren on the F1 Nation Podcast in the build-up to the United States Grand Prix.

He said: “The other thing, though, is if you imagine it from Oscar’s point of view, I still don’t think in any of these moments, engagement issues, he’s ever come out favourably.

“I’m just thinking again, top of my head stuff, but you’ve got the Silverstone one, he got a penalty, felt it was harsh, asked for the team to swap back if they thought it was harsh, they would have done had it been, you know, Max, they would have thought it was an outrageous penalty.

“But, because it was between the two McLarens, they kept the order. Lando wins.

“You’ve then got the Budapest strategy where Oscar was the lead driver, kind of got a bit done by his own team on strategy there, with Lando winning the race.

“You’ve got Monza, where he’s actually had to give up a position. And then you’ve got Singapore, where Lando’s wheel banged his way through and not had the swap around.

“I know in all of this, you’ve got Lando’s lost points with a DNF in Zandvoort. Lando’s had sort of slower pit stops on average, even if Oscar got one in Singapore. But it must be a little bit grating for Oscar to think, flipping hell, can I just have one rub of the green here in terms of the teammate dynamics?

“I think as a driver, you start to wonder if there’s a level of favouritism towards the other driver. It’s just natural. You get paranoid.

“You’re in a title fight. And I wonder if that’s where we’re at with him a little bit.”

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Oscar Piastri told Lando Norris has an advantage in the title fight by Mika Hakkinen

Unless Verstappen pulls off one of Formula 1’s greatest ever comebacks, McLaren will win both championships for the first time since 1998.

Mika Hakkinen was the champion that year, defeating Michael Schumacher and teammate David Coulthard in the process.

Hakkinen believes Norris has an advantage over Piastri going into the final six race weekends of the season, despite his points deficit.

Norris has looked marginally quicker since the summer break, but his retirement at the Dutch Grand Prix has set him back more than any pace deficit he was suffering from earlier in the campaign.

There are plenty of moments both drivers will look back at after Abu Dhabi if they do lose the championship, and Piastri will hope that obeying team orders doesn’t cost him a maiden F1 title.