Oscar Piastri was upset by McLaren’s internal reaction to one of his 2025 crashes

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Oscar Piastri had multiple high-profile accidents in the final third of the 2025 F1 season as his title bid unravelled.

He crashed twice in the space of 24 hours in Baku, first in Q3 and then at the start of the race. Piastri hinted at off-track distractions in the lead-up to the disastrous weekend.

In the United States, Piastri made contact with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg at the start of the Sprint and McLaren teammate Lando Norris was caught in the crossfire. The ensuing double DNF further energised Max Verstappen’s unlikely championship charge.

Finish the sentence: In 2027, Oscar Piastri will be driving for…

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During the next Sprint in Sao Paulo, Piastri found the barriers again. This proved to be a critical weekend, with Norris’ perfect score extending his lead to 24 points.

Oscar Piastri felt McLaren’s reaction to Austin Sprint crash was unfair

The Austin Sprint crash came when Norris was facing ‘repercussions’ from McLaren for bumping into Piastri at the start of the Singapore GP. It’s believed that the British driver was on a less favourable run plan in qualifying.

However, McLaren removed this rule after just one race because, upon review, they deemed Piastri predominantly at fault for the loss of points on that Sprint Saturday.

The stewards had ruled that this was a racing incident, which meant no penalties were handed out. According to Michael Schmidt of AMuS, the Piastri camp were left aggrieved by McLaren’s evaluation.

“They will make McLaren reconsider the papaya rules,” Schmidt said. “I don’t think they will allow a repeat of the incident at Monza, and the blame-shifting the following week [sic] because of the Sprint in Austin.

“That was completely unnecessary. McLaren re-evaluated an incident three days later where the stewards said there was no need for action, it was a normal racing incident. This also contributed to further increasing the mistrust on Piastri’s side.

“There will certainly be discussions about this in the winter and they will have to readjust these papaya rules a bit.”

What did the pundits make of Oscar Piastri’s collision with Lando Norris in the USA?

While he wasn’t penalised, Martin Brundle said Piastri took ‘a huge risk’ by attempting a switch-back manoeuvre on Norris at the first corner. It was ‘inevitable’ that a rival car would be in the way.

Brundle’s Sky colleague Karun Chandhok agreed that Piastri ‘turned quite sharply left’, which caught Hulkenberg off guard. Ultimately, he felt it was a ‘classic’ incident at the bottleneck corner.

Damon Hill said neither McLaren driver was to blame, but the team ultimately viewed it differently.

Piastri ultimately finished third in the championship, 13 points behind Norris.