Oscar Piastri will be replaced for the opening practice session of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old will be forced to watch on as his MCL39 is driven by reserve driver Pato O’Ward on the opening day of the blockbuster weekend at the Yas Marina circuit.
For the first time since 2010, there will be three or more drivers fighting for the championship in the final race of the season.
Lando Norris has one hand on the trophy with a 12-point lead on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and a 16-point lead on McLaren teammate Piastri.
The Australian’s title chances took a hammer blow at the Qatar Grand Prix when McLaren’s race strategy blew up in the team’s face, gifting the race win to Verstappen.
There have been ugly accusations of favouritism within the McLaren garage since the conclusion of the race — and they were further stoked when team members failed to show up to support Piastri in parc ferme as Verstappen and Carlos Sainz celebrated with their teams.
Now Piastri will take another hit during Friday night’s opening practice session with O’Ward stepping into the car.
Under F1 rules, all teams are required to promote reserve drivers for at least two practice sessions per car throughout the course of the championship.
O’Ward stepped into Norris’ car at the Mexico Grand Prix and the IndyCar driver will get his chance to further showcase his talent at F1 level when he takes over from Piastri.
O’Ward’s scheduled promotion comes at a terrible time for Piastri.
McLaren blamed a lack of quality practice time for its set-up failure and disqualification at the Las Vegas Grand Prix last month.
Piastri will still get two full sessions to compile enough data to get the best set-up for his car, but he will still be running at a disadvantage to his teammate.
With McLaren facing the nightmare scenario of losing the unlosable drivers’ championship to Verstappen, the million-dollar question following Monday’s Grand Prix was if the world constructors champion outfit would sacrifice Piastri in order to prioritise Norris.
McLaren supremo Zak Brown has insisted the team will allow its drivers to race freely under the notorious “Papaya Rules”.
Despite Piastri remaining a mathematical chance to be crowned champion, it has been widely speculated the Melburnian could still be treated as the team’s No. 2 driver if Norris is shown preferential treatment with pit-stops and qualifying positioning.
It will be the biggest test of Piastri’s loyalty so far in a season that has been riddled with cases where the Australian sacrificed himself to follow team instructions.
The most notable of those was at the Italian Grand Prix when he was told to swap places with Norris after the Brit copped a slow pit stop. Piastri complied.
According to former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, Piastri may not be as agreeable to listen to team orders this weekend.
“Will Piastri help Norris win the championship if he can’t? No, because until the last lap Piastri could still win the championship,” Villeneuve told CoinPoker.
“On the last lap both Max and Norris could blow an engine.”
Villeneuve also said Piastri appears to have begun listening to the so-called conspiracy theories of McLaren showing overt favouritism towards Norris.
“Over the years you’ve heard so many teams or drivers, where one side of a team complains about conspiracies, and then it turns out that it was the other way around,” he said.
“Once you’re on the losing end or you’re in a bad spell, everything goes through your mind and then you have people that talk to you saying, ‘Of course they’re trying to shaft you. Of course they’re trying to bring you down.’
“Then you start believing it and because you believe it, you make it happen.
“Then you get to Qatar and look who was leading. Not Norris. He wasn’t on it for some reason. So suddenly they decided to favour Piastri?
“Come on. No. So, let’s not go into these theories.”
