During F1’s media day in Abu Dhabi, all eyes were on Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. The leading trio in the championship standings sat together in the FIA press conference, where everyone tried to appear as calm as possible. Norris ended up contradicting himself in an amusing way, while Verstappen laughed that he already has four world championship trophies at home.
Afterwards, Verstappen talked to Dutch media in the paddock and answered the question whether he would be willing to apply Lewis Hamilton’s Abu Dhabi tactics from 2016 — if necessary. Norris, for his part, insisted he would not ask for team orders if he were running fourth, with Piastri in third and Verstappen leading.
McLaren, however, has made clear that in such a scenario the team would ask Piastri to help. Ronald Vording discusses it all in a new episode of the F1 Update, as well as Yuki Tsunoda revealing that other F1 teams had shown interest — but that Red Bull did not allow him to talk — and the online abuse Andrea Kimi Antonelli had to deal with after the Qatar GP. Source
2025-12-04