All eyes and ears will be honed in on the McLaren pit wall when the final race of the 2025 Formula 1 season gets underway in Abu Dhabi.
With Lando Norris holding a slender 12-point lead over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and a 16-point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri.
The title remains firmly up in the air and every F1 fan has been left pondering the same thought, will McLaren ask Piastri to step aside and help Norris secure the crown?
Well it appears that very question has been answered.
While holding a slender chance at still winning the championship for himself, the likelihood is Piastri will finish the season in second or third place on the standings.
The looming threat is four-time champion Verstappen who needs to win the finale and have Norris finish fourth or lower to make it five straight titles.
McLaren could ‘drop’ Piastri if he disobeys team orders
Former F1 drivers believe it would be career suicide for Piastri at McLaren if he disobeys team orders to let Norris through if required in Abu Dhabi.
Speaking to GamblingArabia.com about the hotly debated prospect, seven-time F1 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya said bluntly: “If Piastri wants to be a reserve driver next year, then yes (ignore team orders).
“Put it this way, if he disobeyed orders for a world championship and McLaren loses the championship because Oscar didn’t follow the rules then all hell would break loose.
“If I personally owned that team, he wouldn’t be driving for me the year after. I would make him a reserve driver, and I make sure he’s there every week watching.”
Montoya added: “The Papaya rules are going to haunt them, but they’re standing by being fair for both cars.”
Speaking to Vision4Sport, who provide Formula 1 tickets and packages, Johnny Herbert said Piastri should do whatever it takes to become world champion, even if it means ignoring instructions from his own team.
Herbert said: “If Oscar, for example, went against the team in Abu Dhabi and said, ‘No, I’m not letting him pass,’ they might get so miffed that say you’ve gone against the will of the team and it’s breached your contract. So, we’re going to drop you.
“If it’s a world championship, I’d rather go against the team and have that trophy on my mantlepiece.
“But going against the team is a risky thing. But if he’s in a mindset where he feels he doesn’t like the team environment, then who knows what he might do.
“For instance, could Ferrari take Oscar? Probably yes, the way things are going and if Lewis calls it a day.
“There is going to be that point where if Oscar is ahead of Lando and it’s looking as if it’s going more towards Max, they’ve got to tell Oscar to let Lando pass,” he added.
“But are they going to do that? With everything they’ve been saying so far, they won’t be doing that.
“That would be a very foolish thing to do, and I hope that’s not the case. I’ve said before I don’t want the team to get involved. But then there is a point when you have to get involved where a world championship is at stake.
“I want Lando to win it in a pure form but as history has shown world championships are not always won in the purest form.
“Sometimes that team decision has to come into play. The awful thing is if they still play by the rules, so to speak, they could end up empty-handed and that would a dreadful state of affairs I’m sure.
Herbert agreed McLaren have created a rod for their own back with the insistence on treating both drivers fairly.
“I remember Zak Brown saying that if they didn’t win the drivers’ championship, then, ‘C’est La Vie.’ I thought that was a bit of a strange one,” Herbert said.
“Papaya rules can always bite you in the bum. And I think this year, certain decisions they’ve had to make have bitten them in the bum.
“I hope they don’t do that in a very aggressive way in Abu Dhabi. I think Lando has got more than enough mental capacity to absorb all the pressure that’s on him because he’s only got to finish on the podium if Max wins.”
McLaren make call on team orders for Abu Dhabi season finale
So what are McLaren’s plans, will the infamous ‘papaya rules’ make an appearance or will it be every man for himself?
Team principal Andrea Stella set the record straight ahead of the final showdown in Abu Dhabi.
“When it comes to the fact that we have two drivers in the quest for the World Championship, our philosophy and our approach will not change,” Stella said to F1 media.
“We will leave both Oscar and Lando the possibility to compete and pursue their aspirations. Oscar, from a points point of view, is definitely in condition to win the title.”
Stella however indicated that stance may change depending on what is unfolding during the race and if Norris may require assistance … as long as Piastri is out of contention.
“I think whatever call we make in terms of using the collaboration of our drivers, we will have to follow some of our fundamental principles, which are foundational to our approach,” he said.
“We want to be fair to our drivers, we want to race with integrity, and we want to race in a way that doesn’t surprise our drivers.
“So, between now and Abu Dhabi, there will be further conversation with Lando and Oscar. We will confirm our racing approach, but certainly what I can say is that if any of the drivers is in condition to pursue the quest to win the title, then we will respect this.
“There will be no call which excludes the other drivers when the other driver is in condition to win.
“So, we will see what scenario will unfold, but definitely what I can say is that there will be conversations and there will be a way of going racing which is united between the team and the drivers, like we have always done.”
This will be the third time in Formula 1 history where three drivers remain in contention ahead of the final race of the season.
In the first two instances, the driver in third place on the standings came out on top. In 2007 Kimi Raikkonen jumped both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to win it all.
Sebastian Vettel then repeated the feat in 2010 when he won the final race of the season to win the title over Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber.
When is the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
The final race of the season gets underway from midnight on Monday, December 8 (AEDT) with all the action from lights out until the chequered flag is on Kayo Sports.
Championship permutations, can Oscar win it all?
The Aussie has a bit of a mountain to climb if he’s to reign supreme. Effectively he needs to win the race and have Norris finish sixth or lower.
If he crosses second, then Norris needs to finish lower than ninth with Verstappen crossing fourth or lower.
Verstappen faces a similar equation, win the race with Norris in fourth and it’ll be five-straight titles.
For Norris the equation is simple, stand on the podium and he will win his first ever Formula 1 championship.
