Jolyon Palmer completed 35 races for Renault between 2016 and 2017 - Photo: RacePictures

Palmer: Piastri justified to feel paranoid about McLaren favouritism

15:32, 16 Oct

byBen Winship

Ex-F1 driver and pundit Jolyon Palmer has suggested it is only natural that Oscar Piastri should feel a sense of paranoia about driver favouritism at McLaren.

“I think as a driver, you start to wonder if there's a level of favouritism towards the other driver.”

- Jolyon Palmer on Oscar Piastri

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Palmer argued 'it's just natural you get paranoid' after championship leader Oscar Piastri suffered a series of misfortune during battles with Lando Norris this season.

McLaren drivers Piastri and Norris find themselves in a tight title battle with just six events remaining. The team’s hands-on management of this situation has been a hot topic in recent weeks, particularly after they touched last time out on lap 1 of the Singapore GP.

Piastri worse-off on balance?

Looking back on key moments, Palmer argued that Piastri has suffered a string of bad fortune throughout the season.

He said: “If you imagine it from Oscar's point of view, I still don't think in any of these moments he's ever come out favourably.

“You've got the Silverstone one. He got a penalty, felt it was harsh, and asked for the team to swap it back.

“Had it been Max, they would have thought it was an outrageous penalty but because it was between the two McLarens, they kept the order - Lando wins.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri celebrating the constructors' title - Photo: Race Pictures

“You've then got the Budapest strategy where Oscar was the lead driver, kind of got a bit done by his own team on strategy there with Lando winning the race.

“You've got Monza, where he's actually had to give up a position, and then you've got Singapore, where Lando's wheel banged his way through and didn't have the swap around.”

“I know in all of this, you've got Lando's lost points with a DNF in Zandvoort and Lando's had slower pit stops on average, even if Oscar got one in Singapore.

“But it must be a little bit grating for Oscar to think ‘flipping hell’, can I just have one rub of the green here in terms of the team-mate dynamics?

“I think as a driver, you start to wonder if there's a level of favouritism towards the other driver.”

Papaya rules

McLaren has made it clear throughout the season that they want the battle between their drivers to be fair and have applied a concept called ‘papaya rules’ to encourage clean but tough competition.

But a hands-on approach to managing their drivers on track has proved controversial at times. At the Italian GP they asked Piastri to concede a position to Norris after the Briton suffered an ‘unfair’ slow pit stop.

Norris and Piastri after Italian GP - Photo: RacePictures

This set a precedent that the team has found difficult to maintain and Piastri felt let down that the team did not intervene when Norris made contact when overtaking him on lap 1 of the Singapore GP, going on to finish the race ahead of the Australian.

Only 22 points separate the McLaren drivers at the top of the championship with just six events remaining.

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