{"id":480290,"date":"2025-11-17T23:10:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=480290"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:24:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:24:35","slug":"australias-last-f1-world-champ-rips-rubbish-piastri-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=480290","title":{"rendered":"Australia's last F1 world champ rips 'rubbish' Piastri debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia's last Formula 1<\/a> world champion Alan Jones<\/a> has rubbished the notion of preferential treatment at McLaren<\/a> against their driver, Oscar Piastri<\/a>, arguing that the idea crops up every season with any title challengers in the same team.<\/p>\n

Currently, McLaren have both their drivers fighting for the championship while \ufeffRed Bull<\/a>'s Max Verstappen<\/a> is close behind.<\/p>\n

Many have argued that Piastri's sudden decline in performance is due to team sabotage, but Jones called the idea the "greatest load of nonsense."<\/p>\n

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"It's the greatest load of nonsense of all time," said Jones on the ABC Summer Grandstand<\/em> podcast.<\/p>\n

"Every single season, we come across this bullshit.<\/p>\n

"It's either Mark Webber against Vettel, or it's somebody, it's always, 'Oh, he's got a better car than me' or 'He's getting preferential treatment'.<\/p>\n

"It's absolute crap."<\/p>\n

A long history of teammate fights<\/h3>\n

During his time as an F1 driver, Jones was regularly locked in tense fights with his teammate Carlos \ufeffReutemann.<\/p>\n

But Jones argued that teams would be silly to fly "halfway around the world" to be preferential to one driver and lose out on the maximum points they could achieve.<\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/p>\n

"These teams don't spend absolute fortunes travelling halfway around the world to stymie one car or give preference to the other," he added.<\/p>\n

"I can assure you that both these cars are getting the same sort of treatment.<\/p>\n

"I know Zak Brown very well. He's a good racer, and he'd be giving both these blokes equal chances.<\/p>\n

"I had Carlos Reutemann, an Argentinian, as my teammate<\/a>, and the crap that used to come through that Williams was giving me better equipment, a better car, that they weren't looking after Carlos the way they should.<\/p>\n

"Of course, Argentinians being a little bit fiery as they are, that was sort of exaggerated even more.<\/p>\n

"People get carried away, and half of those who get carried away have no idea about the sport whatsoever."<\/p>\n

He reiterated the outlandish ideas of teams handing drivers damaged cars or changing the setup to help a particular driver. \ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Lando<\/p>\n

"If it were tennis, I swear to god, they'd be saying they're giving the bloke the wrong racket or something. It's just rubbish," he said.<\/p>\n

"Then you get all the rare experts coming out of the woodwork. With their opinions on this, that and the other thing. Half of them wouldn't know one end of a car from another.<\/p>\n

"But they're free to give their advice whether it's needed or not. It's just nonsense.<\/p>\n

"It's not [happening], certainly within the team, I can assure you."<\/p>\n

Claire Williams, the daughter of Frank Williams, team principal to Jones at Williams Racing, \ufeffagreed with the sentiment that there is no ill will inside the McLaren garage.<\/p>\n

She reminded those that disagree that racing is a "crazy business" and that decisions by race engineers on the pit wall are made in a split-second to best suit every driver on track.<\/p>\n

"You're going to have best-laid plans going into every grand prix. You're going to have the conversations with your drivers to keep it clean, keep it on the race track," Williams explained.<\/p>\n

"But, you know, racing is a bit of a crazy business. You don't know what's going to happen when the lights go out.<\/p>\n

\"Piastri,<\/p>\n

"It's not easy to manage and we can all look on a Monday and go 'why did they make that decision, why did they do that?'<\/p>\n

"But all I can say is McLaren on the pit wall will always have the best intentions and try to do the best thing for their drivers on a Sunday afternoon."<\/p>\n

Las Vegas looming\ufeff<\/h3>\n

Coming into Las Vegas, \ufeffPiastri is trailing behind his teammate in the standings by 24 points.<\/p>\n

Lando Norris<\/a> could effectively clinch the drivers' title by placing at least second in the next three weekends, but Jones thinks that the pendulum could swing either way.<\/p>\n

"Norris could have a DNF, Oscar win and end up back in the lead again," Jones insisted.<\/p>\n

But not all in the paddock agree.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar<\/p>\n

Guenther Steiner, \ufeffformer F1 boss at Haas believes that Verstappen is set to leapfrog a "mentally destroyed" Piastri in the drivers' championship. Currently only 25 points separate the two. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"You guys saw what happened in Brazil, or not in Brazil, the last four races. So, why not?" Steiner asked on the Red Flags<\/em> podcast.<\/p>\n

"I mean, he [Verstappen] continues to do it.<\/p>\n

"If you say that Oscar is now destroyed mentally, I mean, Max will be ahead of him, absolutely. And Max is motivated like hell.<\/p>\n

"As we can see in Brazil, he didn't give up after a crappy qualifying. He rolled his sleeves up and made it better, and finished on the podium."<\/p>\n

Steiner brought up the discussion of Piastri's future, saying his opinions have changed<\/a> and that the young Australian would benefit from leaving McLaren if he doesn't win the championship.<\/p>\n

\"Zak<\/p>\n

"I think if that is happening, he just needs to regroup over the winter and come back stronger than before," Steiner said.<\/p>\n

"Otherwise, if he doesn't come back stronger, I think the best is that he changes teams then. That's my opinion about it."<\/p>\n

The Las Vegas race on Sunday will be at 3pm, November 23 (AEDT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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