Cricket
Motorsport
Basketball test
League - Test
Combat Sports
Netball
Football
Help Lando? Piastri's blunt reply to McLaren's F1 request
SEN • November 28th, 2025 11:52 am
“The answer is no.”
A blunt four word rebuttal from Oscar Piastri when McLaren approached him to discuss the notion of him helping Lando Norris win the F1 drivers title.
Norris, who leads Piastri and Max Verstappen by 24 points, can become world champion in Qatar with the right results this weekend.
But with 58 points on offer across two Grands Prix and a sprint race, Piastri believes he is in contention and will not entertain playing the role of a No. 2 driver to help his teammate.
"We've had a very brief discussion on it, and the answer is no," the 24-year-old said about McLaren floating the idea of him playing the assistant role.
"I'm still equal on points with Max and I've got a decent shot of still winning it if things go my way so, yeah, that's how we'll play.
"I think there's still a chance, and it's played out that way a couple of times before.”
The current title race echoes the 2007 season when a rookie Lewis Hamilton teamed up with Fernando Alonso with the Brit surprising almost everyone on the grid with how competitive he was.
As they both claimed victories through the season and went toe-to-toe in the title race, one Kimi Räikkönen was creeping up on them both before eventually being crowned world champion after a series of devastating crashes in the final three races for McLaren.
Raikkonen won the title on 110 points with the McLaren duo both on 109.
While fully aware on how many things have to go his way across the final two rounds of the season, Piastri believes he has a chance.
"I know it's not impossible," said Piastri, who could become the first Australian to take the title since Alan Jones in 1980. "Obviously, I also know that it's a bit of an outside shot.
"I can't just rely on having a perfect final two weekends… I need other things to go my way, and I'm very aware of that.
"I'm just going to try and have the best weekends I can, which I try and do every weekend, and see what happens to everyone else.
"Regardless of what the championship picture looks like for others, everyone is going out there to try and fight for wins and podiums.
"So I don't expect anyone to make life easy."
F1 returns in Qatar this weekend with a sprint and Grand Prix before the season finale in Abu Dhabi a week later.
If Norris gets through the Qatar weekend by outscoring both Piastri and Verstappen by two points, he will be crowned world champion.
