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

Sky Sports pundit denies McLaren’s British bias: ‘We don’t see that!’

11:27, 11 Oct

byKada Sarkozi

Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz is against the idea of McLaren favouring Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri in their championship battle.

Last weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix, the two McLaren drivers finished third and fourth behind George Russell and Max Verstappen.

Norris and Piastri made contact at the start, prompting the Australian to ask the team over the team radio to swap positions. McLaren ultimately opted against doing that.

Kravitz sees no British bias in the team's operations, he explained on The F1 Show podcast of Sky Sports.

"These theories about whether it’s nationality or anything else that people favour and other things, it just doesn’t stand up over the balance of a season," he began.

norris-piastri-collision-mclaren-singapore-gp-f1

Lando Norris making contact with Oscar Piastri at the start of the Singapore GP. Photo: RacePictures.

Kravitz also argues against Norris being favoured because he has been with McLaren for longer.

"The other one I’ve heard is that because Lando has been there longer, [he] is somehow sort of the favoured driver. Because Oscar’s only been there for three years and Lando’s been there for longer, they feel like they’d like Lando to win the championship.

“Just because he’s been there longer? Well, that’s hardly a reason."

Therefore, Kravitz is clear in his verdict. “There’s no evidence to suggest, and nothing that we’ve seen – and heavens know if we’d seen it and we’d got a sense that McLaren want one driver to win over the other, we’d be talking about it, because we’re journalists, and that’s a good story.

"We’re just not seeing it; I just don’t see that there is any of this.”

Is the title fight finally heating up?

With six Grands Prix and three Sprints left on the calendar, Piastri currently leads Norris by 22 points in the standings.

Position	Driver	Points
P1	Oscar Piastri	336
P2	Lando Norris	314
P3	Max Verstappen	273

After the Singapore Grand Prix, Norris was confident in his opening lap maneouvre, saying: "If you fault me for just going up the inside and putting my car on the inside of a big gap then, yeah, I think you shouldn't be in Formula 1."

Is the title battle heating up? Find out in the latest episode of GPblog's 'F1 Paddock Update' here!

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