Oscar Piastri has confirmed "tweaks' will be made to McLaren's 'papaya rules' after claiming "headaches" occurred last year that could easily have been avoided.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has long made clear that Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris will always be treated equally when it comes to decisions made over a race weekend, and especially during a grand prix.
Last season, however, there were occasions when Piastri felt he did not get a fair rub of the green. The Italian Grand Prix was the most blatant when he was forced to hand a position back to Norris, who had incurred a slow pit stop. Piastri voiced his frustration over the radio at the time, believing such a situation was not what had been agreed.
In the following race in Singapore, the Australian also felt aggrieved when barged out of the way by Norris at Turn 3 on the opening lap. Although he questioned it at the time and suggested the place he lost should be handed back, McLaren maintained the status quo.
There were additional incidents at Silverstone, and in Austria and Hungary, where it could be perceived that McLaren favoured Norris over Piastri, with the Briton finishing 13 points clear of his team-mate at the end of the year en route to his maiden title.
Stella has previously suggested there will be a "streamlining" of the rules, with Piastri confirming they "will look different" this year.
Speaking to select media, including RacingNews365, he said: "For me, as Andrea said, streamlining it is a wise decision to make. We've probably caused some headaches for ourselves that we didn't need to at points last year.
"As a general principle, and a general way of going racing, it does bring a lot of positives with it. It's just how do we refine that to try and keep it to just positives, basically.
"There is always a lot more made out about it than actually happens. There are a lot of hypothetical situations, and a lot of people who think without knowing the complete inner workings. A lot of things appear differently from how they actually are.
"So yeah, some tweaks for sure this year. But I think it's pretty clear that we still want to go racing as much as a team as we can."
Did Piastri get a fair shot in 2025?
Despite the situations that occurred last season, Piastri is confident he "got a fair shot last year" and is fully "expecting that to stay exactly the same" this season.
Reiterating that "certain things could have been done better last year" which were "probably clear to everyone watching", he added: "For me, at no point were there any bad intentions, or any time I questioned the intentions of things.
"Again, things could have been done better, situations could have been handled differently, but that is part of elite sport and part of Formula 1.
"You're never going to get every decision right. You're never going to make every single person happy, and that's part of the unique nature of Formula 1, given it's a team sport with an individual prize at the end as well.
"So yeah, I think I got a fair shot last year. We're working on how we can improve things and make sure that we try to become stronger."
Also interesting:
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