‘They try to make it too fair’: Steiner’s McLaren warning as he backs Piastri for world title

21 hours ago 5

Ex-Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner has backed Oscar Piastri to win this year’s drivers’ title, but only if McLaren get behind Piastri in the final races of the season and avoid trying to make his battle with teammate Lando Norris “too fair”.

Cult hero Steiner, who rose to fame during the hit Netflix series Drive to Survive, backed McLaren’s decision at the start of the campaign to let their two stars race and not favour either one – a call that led to their constructors’ title domination.

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri after the Singapore GP.

Piastri is 22 points clear of Norris in the drivers’ championship heading into the United States Grand Prix early on Monday morning (AEDT). Including this race, there are six left in the season.

Piastri is in the box seat to come Australia’s first F1 world champion since Alan Jones in 1980.

Steiner warned McLaren could “overthink” things but said they had to make a call – especially with the four-time reigning world champion, in-form Red Bull superstar Max Verstappen hot on their heels in third.

“There is a lot at stake now and decisions need to be made pretty soon,” Steiner said on Friday at CyberCon at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, where he also spoke on the importance of data security in F1.

“The biggest risk out there for anybody is McLaren loses the driver world championship.

“Max is getting stronger, the Mercedes is getting stronger. Mercedes cannot win the championship, but they can take points away from McLaren.

“That’s the danger here – Max can move up. To make sure a McLaren driver wins it, at some stage, and I think it is pretty soon, they have to make the decision to support the driver which is in front, which is obviously Oscar.”

Some fans claim the British powerhouse McLaren favours Norris, a British star, but the team rejects this.

Former F1 team boss Guenther Steiner at CyberCon 2025 in Melbourne on Friday.

“I don’t think nationality has something to do with it, or favouritism in the team,” Steiner said.

“The team, McLaren, sometimes tries to overthink things and when you overthink things it becomes dangerous.

“Racing is racing, and you want to win. McLaren is a team with hundreds of people working there, and it means a lot because you don’t have many opportunities in your lifetime to win two championships in one year.

“They try to make it, almost, too fair.

“At the end, one of the two will be disappointed, and you need to make sure that not both of them are disappointed.”

During the recent Singapore Grand Prix, Norris made contact with Piastri at turn three of the opening lap as part of an overtake that ultimately led to the Brit finishing on the podium and eating into Piastri’s championship lead.

Piastri, just after the contact between the pair, had a pointed question for his McLaren team: “So are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way or...? What’s the go there?” he said over his car’s radio.

“That’s not fair. That’s not fair.”

Piastri’s poise in the spotlight this season has impressed Steiner, who also praised the mentorship of former Australian star Mark Webber, who has been Piastri’s manager since 2019.

Webber, who finished third in the drivers’ championship three times, experienced issues with team politics during his career, particularly his stint at Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel.

Steiner said “it’s amazing how calm and well-behaved” Piastri is, given he’s only in his third season in the top flight.

“But he has the big advantage in a guy called Mark Webber,” Steiner explained.