Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz has denied claims that McLaren are backing Lando Norris in this year’s title race.
After the 2025 F1 Singapore Grand Prix, Norris has reduced his lead over Oscar Piastri to 22 points.
The British driver made an aggressive move towards his teammate during the opening lap of Sunday’s race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Piastri was furious, given that Norris’ much-discussed ploy had led to their contact.
Piastri felt uncomfortable that Norris’ actions violated McLaren’s “papaya rule”.
The stewards saw no reason to take any action against Norris and as a result McLaren felt there was no need to intervene.
McLaren’s rude response led to suggestions that the two drivers were not being treated equally.
Piastri had been cautioned by McLaren at various races in Austria and Hungary this year for attempting to make aggressive moves towards Norris, even though there was no contact.
Norris has been with the team as a full-time driver since 2019, and his long association with McLaren has led to claims that the team would prefer him to win the title over Piastri, who was signed from Alpine.
‘No evidence’ of favoritism
Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky F1 Podcast, Kravitz said there was “no evidence to suggest” McLaren were backing Norris.
Kravitz is adamant that McLaren does not treat either driver differently, it simply depends on which driver performs on track.
lando norris, mclaren
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Norris did not finish the Dutch Grand Prix due to reliability issues, while Piastri’s one DNF was due to his own mistakes.
“Another argument I’ve heard is that somehow he’s the popular driver because Lando has been around longer, while Oscar has only been around for three years. Lando has been around longer,” Kravitz said.
“They want Lando to win the championship because he’s been there so long. That’s no excuse and you can’t stand up for it. It’s up to the two of them.”
“There’s no evidence to suggest, nothing we’ve seen, but heaven knows what… If we had seen it and felt that McLaren wanted one driver to win over the other, we would have talked about it, because we are journalists and it’s a good story.”
“We just haven’t seen it. It’s up to Melbourne. Melbourne was an interesting race because Lando won the race and Oscar spun and finished ninth. Then Oscar pulled together and came out stronger in qualifying and closed that gap.”
“It was a 23-point difference that Oscar closed and moved ahead. That was mainly due to a good qualifying, and Lando was struggling with the handling of the car. It was really unbearable.”