Piastri says McLaren were 'fair' in 2025 F1 title fight & expects the same this season

[p]The Australian led the standings for much of 2025 but ended up ​third overall, with [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/norris-lando/WSVABbVF/"]Norris[/a] beating Red Bull's four-time world champion [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/verstappen-max/UV3mgeXB/"]Max Verstappen[/a] by two points.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/piastri-oscar/MqKAIeUf/"]Piastri[/a] and Norris finished with the same number of wins, seven each to ‌Verstappen's eight.[/p][p][b]"I think I got a fair shot last year and I'm expecting ‌that to stay exactly the same,"[/b] Piastri told reporters at a McLaren media event at the Woking factory.[/p][p][b]"That's definitely not to say that certain things could not have been done better last year. I think that was probably clear ⁠for everyone watching, but for me, at no point were there any bad intentions or ‌any times I questioned the intentions of things.[/b][/p][p][b]"Things could have been done better, ​situations could have been handled differently, but that is part of elite sport and part of Formula 1."[/b][/p][p]McLaren gave equal treatment to their drivers last year, although there were controversies involving the application of the team's so-called 'Papaya Rules'. One involved the Australian letting Norris past after a botched pitstop by ‌the team at Monza.[/p][embed guid="d9afc282-28de-42d0-99aa-f0d5b536f7c1" url="https://x.com/McLarenF1/status/2018719919932678624" social-type="twitter" /][p]Formula 1 is starting a new era this season with major changes to the engines and aerodynamics in the biggest technical shakeup in decades.[/p][p]That makes the pecking order little more than guesswork at present, with ⁠teams having conducted only a shakedown test behind closed doors in Barcelona last week before two official pre-season tests in Bahrain this month.[/p][p]The first race is in Melbourne, Piastri's hometown, on March 8 and the Australian is hoping for better than last year where he spun off and finished ninth.[/p][p][b]"Hopefully, it goes a bit better than last year," [/b]said Piastri, who returned to Australia after the season-ending Abu Dhabi race.[/p][p][b]"That would be nice but it's going to be such an unknown for everybody that at this point (I'm) just trying to maximise the time I've got in ⁠Bahrain, testing and trying to hit the ground running.[/b][/p][p]"But I think the ‌amount of support I gained over the last 12 months, especially in Australia, it's going to be nice to be back racing at home."[/p][p]Piastri had looked forward to watching Australia's triumphant Ashes cricket defence as some small consolation when he left Abu Dhabi. The driver ⁠said he had missed out there too.[/p][p]"I went and saw the ​one game that England won," he said. "That was karma."[/p]