Max Verstappen issues 'unhappy faces' verdict on McLaren driver management

Max Verstappen has shared his thoughts on how McLaren is managing Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris through the F1 drivers' championship battle.

The papaya team-mates have been embroiled in a season-long intra-team fight for their maiden title, but a resurgent Verstappen has added an unexpected and intriguing ingredient into the mix as the campaign builds to a crescendo.

McLaren has been widely criticised in recent weeks for over-managing its drivers and over-engineering what happens on track between the pair.

Whilst this narrative has long bubbled beneath the surface, the decision to switch its drivers at the Italian Grand Prix sparked dissatisfaction in some quarters, with accusations of bias in favour of Norris.

The perceived agenda against Piastri was given further fresh life at the Singapore Grand Prix, with McLaren this time criticised for not getting involved.

Either way, the Woking-based squad seemingly cannot win, but many consider the constructors' champions to have made a rod through its own back, something that could now prove even more costly with Verstappen back in the hunt for a fifth-consecutive crown.

With six rounds — and three sprints — remaining, the Dutchman is 63 points adrift of Piastri, and improvements to his RB21 have made the Red Bull driver a factor in the championship fight regardless of whether he can further close the gap.

The 28-year-old has benefited from the Milton Keynes outfit's singular focus in recent years. As such, he does not believe a team can ever truly ensure parity and fairness between its drivers.

Speaking to Dutch media, including RacingNews365, Verstappen said: "I don’t think a championship can ever be completely fair.

"Sometimes you just get a bad pit stop, and other times you’re dealing with a broken engine — that’s just how it goes."

'McLaren sees it differently...'

McLaren's long-held stance is that Norris and Piastri are both 'number one' drivers and that it will take strides to keep things equal, even in the midst of an increasingly close title fight — and one with an external threat.

To Verstappen, keeping a hand on the scales of fairness can lead to "unhappy faces", given how hard it is not to weigh it one way or the other.

"It’s almost impossible to balance things like that — but that’s just my opinion," the 67-time grand prix winner added. 

"McLaren sees it differently, but it’s incredibly difficult to manage. And sometimes, that leads to unhappy faces."

When asked if he feels the situation at the papaya team helps him in the two v one championship battle, he partly agreed before adding: "We should have won in Singapore, of course, because we didn’t gain enough points there."