Alan Jones has refused to jump on the bandwagon of many of his fellow Australians espousing the theory that McLaren is showing favouritism towards Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri.
Piastri heads into this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix 24 points adrift of Norris following a 58-point swing over the last six races since his victory in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, where the Briton suffered a rare retirement.
The suggestion since then for Piastri's loss of form - crashes aside in qualifying and the grand prix in Azerbaijan - has been that McLaren has prioritised Norris.
Jones, 1980 champion with Williams, has vehemently ridiculed such claims in speaking to ABC's Summer Grandstand podcast.
"It's the greatest load of nonsense of all time," said Jones. “Every single season we come across this bullshit.
"It’s either Mark Webber against Vettel, or it’s somebody. It’s always, ‘Oh, he’s got a better car than me’ or ‘He’s getting preferential treatment’. It’s absolute crap.
"These teams don’t spend absolute fortunes travelling halfway around the world to stymie one car or give preference to the other. I can assure you that both these cars are getting the same sort of treatment.
"I know [McLaren Racing CEO] Zak Brown very well, he’s a good racer, and he’d be giving both these blokes equal chances.”
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British team, British champion? Rubbish!
Suggested to Jones that such theories were a bias from the Australian media, or 'casual [fans] who dip in and out of the sport', he simply stated that it was "human nature".
He added: "If it were tennis, I swear to God, they’d be saying they’re giving the bloke the wrong racket or something. It’s just rubbish.
"Then you get all the rare experts coming out of the woodwork, with their opinions on this, that and the other thing. Half of them wouldn’t know one end of a car from another, but they’re free to give their advice whether it’s needed or not. It’s just nonsense."
Jones insisted that it was simply "the ups and downs of Formula 1" as to why Piastri had let his lead slip and be overtaken by Norris, before pointing out that in Vegas on Sunday, "Norris could have a DNF, Oscar win and end up back in the lead again".
The 79-year-old further rubbished the claim that for a British team in McLaren, it would make greater commercial sense to have a British world champion.
Reflecting on his own experience, he said: "It's not [happening], certainly within the team, I can assure you.
"I had Carlos Reutemann, an Argentinian, as my team-mate, and the crap that used to come through that Williams was giving me better equipment, a better car, that they weren't looking after Carlos the way they should.
"Of course, Argentinians being a little bit fiery as they are, that was sort of exaggerated even more. People get carried away, and half of those who get carried away have no idea about the sport whatsoever."
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