Nico Rosberg has heard ‘some voices’ suggesting McLaren want Lando Norris to win the F1 title

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Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will both start the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with the chance to become the champion, but only one can win McLaren’s first title since 2008.

The papaya pals are separated by 16 points atop the F1 drivers’ championship with a round to go. Norris will start the Abu Dhabi GP as the title favourite, with the Briton sitting on 408 points to lead Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 12 points and McLaren teammate Piastri by 16.

McLaren have not won the F1 drivers’ championship since Lewis Hamilton secured the first of his seven titles to date back in 2008. Hamilton’s first F1 title also remains McLaren’s only championship success since the turn of the millennium, but their wait may end on Sunday.

CEO Zak Brown has also confirmed that McLaren will give Piastri team orders to help Norris win the 2025 F1 title, should the latter require his teammate’s help to stop Verstappen from taking the title. Norris only needs to finish on the Yas Marina podium to secure his first title.

Nico Rosberg warns Oscar Piastri that it ‘won’t help’ to dwell on McLaren prioritising Lando Norris

McLaren had opposed team orders through the first 23/24 rounds of the 2025 F1 season, as Brown and team principal Andrea Stella wanted to give Norris and Piastri an equal chance to win the title. But McLaren have faced accusations that they have prioritised Norris this term.

READ MORE: F1 experts predict the 2025 Abu Dhabi GP and if Lando Norris will win the title

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There has been much speculation in the F1 paddock that McLaren favour Norris over Piastri over the course of 2025. Nico Rosberg also now claims that he has “heard” ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP that “everybody” at McLaren is almost rooting to see Norris claim the drivers’ title.

“For Oscar, it is a very tough situation,” Rosberg told Sky Sports News (6/12, 09:12). “He was the leader throughout most of the championship and looked like the dominant force, and then Lando has come back.

“It’s also a British team, and you sense that, I’m sure, without knowing exactly, but I heard some voices like Mark Webber being there and being the only Australian, and everybody is kind of a little bit towards favouring Lando as a world champion.

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“And, of course, I think Lando in general, for everybody, also the fans, he’s the most popular driver, like on a fans’ survey, he’s number one ahead of everybody else. And I’m also sure that the team, internally, he’ll be pretty popular.

“So, it’s just a very hard situation for Oscar to be in. And, naturally, you start to have bad thoughts, also that, ‘Hey, maybe the team prioritised the other driver in that moment’, or something. It’s inevitable. So, it’s a tough one, and it won’t help going forward.”

Nico Rosberg finds Lando Norris’ improvement during 2025 ‘super impressive’

Sauber gem Gabriel Bortoleto thinks McLaren favouring Norris over Piastri would be natural, given the Briton has been at the team since even before he made his F1 debut with them in 2019. Piastri also made his F1 debut with McLaren in 2023 after defecting from Alpine’s fold.

READ MORE: All you need to know about the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, including past winners

Rounds 12, 13, 14 and 16 of the 2025 season especially fuelled the allegations that McLaren have favoured Norris over Piastri this year. McLaren refused to swap their places after Piastri got a controversial penalty in the British Grand Prix, which gave Norris the lead and the win.

McLaren also allowed Norris to adopt different strategies to Piastri in Belgium and Hungary, with the latter instance also resulting in the Briton beating the Australian for the win by just 0.698s. The biggest incident came when McLaren told Piastri to hand Norris back P2 in Italy.

But, against the backdrop of the allegations of favouritism at McLaren, Norris has impressed Rosberg this year with how he improved and reduced his errors. Norris has made an array of errors in qualifying this year, including in China, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and Qatar.

“Lando has done such a great job in improving himself,” he said. “It was Lando’s weaknesses that, kind of, let Oscar get away in the middle of the season, and he’s just improved himself. He’s really refocused, reduced his errors, and that’s super impressive. So, hats off to Lando.”