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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today, I still can’t work out if the 2025 Formula One world championship is basically already over or if the sport will get its first final race title decider since 2021. Guess we’ll soon see!
I’m Alex, and Luke Smith will be along later.
A Word on F1 Conspiracies
And the simplicity behind the McLaren battle
As things get going in Qatar, it’s still worth looking back to that bonkers week in Las Vegas. Because there wasn’t just plank wear controversy concerning McLaren in Sin City.
Even before the team’s double disqualification very early Sunday morning, many fans found themselves all of a flutter over Oscar Piastri’s Instagram, in which he’d apparently reposted a graphic suggesting McLaren favors his teammate Lando Norris. Piastri’s account deleted the post shortly after.
McLaren put the incident down to a member of Piastri’s support team accidentally pressing a button while logged into the account. Piastri joked about it, but basically insisted “I don’t know (what happened).”
Clear as mud or not, this episode doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. But the nefarious conspiracy theories surrounding it ultimately do. Because they concern the hard work of real people.
McLaren has been consistently dogged by conspiracy theories in 2025, and these significantly increased as Piastri’s form disappeared following his win at the Dutch GP.
After all, McLaren has tried to do something very different compared to other dominant F1 teams this century. It has contorted itself keeping things equal.
What has aided the vociferous voices of conspiracy is that when McLaren has felt the need to intervene, Piastri has indeed been the driver most impacted.
There was the “hold position” call in Melbourne, the “maneuver in Turn 4 … too marginal” message after his Austria lunge. And, of course, the position swap after the bungled Norris pitstop at Monza.
Lando Norris after he was let back by Oscar Piastri late in the 2025 Italian GP (Joe Portlock/Getty Images)
The Melbourne rain call was temporary as McLaren figured out what to do on its wet tire strategy. Even Piastri admitted the Austria message was “fair.” And Monza was actually a net gain, given that Piastri would’ve fallen behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari if he took the second service as McLaren initially intended.
Remember, at this stage McLaren’s pit equipment was malfunctioning, so whichever driver stopped second was going to lose time and Piastri would almost certainly have been undercut by Leclerc had it happened to him and not Norris, as was the original plan. I crunched the numbers on their pre-stop gaps, Monza pitlane time loss and the long Norris stop to confirm that, because I’m just that cool.
McLaren remains adamant it would rather lose the 2025 drivers’ titles than change its approach.
Team CEO Zak Brown stated this outright back at the start of this month and team principal Andrea Stella said there was “no reason” to impose any team orders in the Q&A McLaren released to explain its Vegas issues.
But I found there was something really revealing around this whole saga added into the reply I got from Stella last Friday night in Vegas. I asked him to compare the Norris that made his F1 debut with McLaren back in 2019 to the driver who has now entered 150 F1 races and is just a few points from possibly claiming his first world title.
“It’s been exciting doing this with Lando. Like it is with Oscar, you really generate a special relationship with these guys. For me it’s just two sons, so it’s a great experience at professional and personal level.”
Piastri isn’t being held back. McLaren needs to keep the two drivers it adores happy and under long-term contracts. It has gone out of its way to try and balance things, even if people on the outside refuse to see it.
The championship would’ve been far worse without this.
We could get into the argument of how, if either of the pair has actually been held back through mechanical malady, it’s surely Norris — given that Zandvoort engine oil leak or his China brake issue. And remember the Vegas double DQ gained Piastri points on Norris.
But there’s a far simpler truth than grand conspiracy at play.
The tracks earlier in the season just suited Piastri compared to the run since Zandvoort, which has served Norris better. And he’s also gotten better at driving the MCL39.
But Piastri is mega in high-speed turns, so don’t be surprised to see him shine again in Qatar.
Inside the Paddock with Luke Smith
Hamilton: No regrets over Ferrari switch
Lewis Hamilton has cut a downcast figure in recent races. On Saturday night in Vegas, he said he wasn’t even looking forward to next season.
Hamilton clarified at yesterday’s FIA news conference in Qatar that his post-race Vegas comments were made out of frustration. And one thing he made clear is that if he’d known what this year would look like, he’d still “absolutely” have signed with Ferrari.
“I don’t regret the decision I made joining the team,” Hamilton said.
But I can’t get away from the fact Ferrari finished a close second in the 2024 constructors’ championship and won a lot of races. It wasn’t a team that seemed in need of a serious rebuild and yet, here we are.
Qatar FP1 Leaderboard
Piastri leads sole practice session
After I’d written the rant above, Piastri immediately proved exactly how well he goes on the high-speed Qatar track by leading the weekend’s only practice session for McLaren.
Oscar Piastri during FP1 at the 2025 Qatar GP (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
- Piastri set a best lap of 1:20.924, 0.058-seconds ahead of Norris in second.
- The drivers stuck to the hard and soft tires, with the mediums mainly being saved for the main race and its one-off tire usage rules.
- Verstappen, sixth in FP1, got cross with his car’s engine electricity deployment. Classic.
Qatar sprint qualifying takes place at 12.30 p.m. ET on Friday, with the sprint race to follow at 9.00 a.m. ET on Saturday, before GP qualifying kicks off at 1.00 p.m. ET. Follow along with us.
Outside the points
❗ McLaren offered an explanation of its Las Vegas double DQ, with Luke gathering more details from the Qatar paddock for this great explainer feature on a rather more complex F1 saga.
🇬🇧 Adrian Newey was a surprise announcement as Aston Martin team principal.
👥 And Luke also explained why this move leaves Newey in an unusual spot even in his storied F1 career, as well as outlining where this leaves Christian Horner, who had been in the running to take over from Andy Cowell and lead Aston.
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