Oscar Piastri Upset By 'Unnecessary' McLaren Decision As 'Mistrust' Revealed

Oscar Piastri was less than happy with one McLaren decision in particular during the 2025 season, it has been claimed.

Piastri finished the season in third place in the Drivers' Championship standings, behind Max Verstappen and champion Lando Norris.

He led McLaren team-mate Norris in the standings for much of the first half of the season, but Norris took the championship lead after the Mexico City Grand Prix in October and never relinquished it.

Piastri suffered a significant late-season loss of form, failing to finish on the podium in six consecutive races between Azerbaijan and Las Vegas.

The Azerbaijan weekend saw Piastri crash out in the final session of qualifying, before doing so again on the opening lap of the race after starting from the back of the grid.

He was then involved in another incident at the first corner of the United States Grand Prix sprint, where he made contact with Nico Hulkenberg at turn one.

Hulkenberg then speared into Norris, causing both McLarens and Fernando Alonso - who was caught up in the crash - to retire.

The crash was deemed to be a racing incident by the stewards, meaning Piastri faced no further action, though did appear to have been predominantly to blame.

But according to Michael Schmidt of AMuS, the Australian's camp were not happy by McLaren's internal reaction to the crash, as well as their subsequent action.

"They will make McLaren reconsider the papaya rules. I don't think they will allow a repeat of the incident at Monza [where Norris was allowed to re-overtake Piastri after a slow pit-stop], and the blame-shifting the following week because of the sprint in Austin," he said.

"That was completely unnecessary. McLaren re-evaluated an incident three days later when 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 re-adjust these papaya rules a bit."