Max Verstappen's father, Jos, alleges McLaren is not giving Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri the same car

Max Verstappen's father, Jos Verstappen, has alleged that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are not driving the same McLarens as the Australian continues to go through a drop in form. The 2025 F1 season has seen a sweeping change in form from different drivers, especially the two championship contenders.

The season began with Oscar Piastri leading the charge within McLaren. Compared to Lando Norris, the Australian was the more consistent and less error-prone driver. When Norris suffered a power unit failure in Zandvoort, Piastri extended his lead in the championship to more than 30 points. Since that race in Max Verstappen's backyard, Piastri is yet to finish ahead of his teammate in a race.

He's struggled not only with performance but also with a few errors that have been uncharacteristic of him. During all of this, Max Verstappen has also closed down what was a 105-point deficit he had from Oscar Piastri.

Heading into the last two races of the season now, the championship standings have Lando Norris leading the standings with both Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri 24 points behind. This has also led to questions about what is going on with the Australian, as he has struggled to reclaim his early-season form.

Talking to Formule1.nl, Jos Verstappen also stirred the pot when he claimed that it was visible from the outside that the two cars are not the same. He said,

"The pressure is on at McLaren now, and they'll feel it. It's still true that if Max wins the remaining races and Norris finishes second every time, Norris will become world champion. But Oscar Piastri is also there, and he won't be thrilled right now either."

He added,

"You can clearly see a difference between the two McLarens on track, how they handle corners. One slides, the other doesn't, and that raises questions. In any case, it's going to be a very exciting finale to the season, and for Max, everything has to go his way. But he still has nothing to lose and can go all out on the attack. And he will.”

Jos Verstappen takes a shot at Lando Norris for his defence against Max Verstappen in Las Vegas

The Las Vegas GP had Lando Norris starting the race on pole position with Max Verstappen right alongside him on the front row. The start saw Norris defend aggressively against Verstappen and crowd him a little against the wall. Subsequently, the driver would miss his braking mark and end up conceding his place to the Red Bull driver anyway.

Jos Verstappen felt that the move was a result of Norris being too focused on Verstappen at the start, which induced the error. He said,

"That was too aggressive. It was a close call between the two cars, and then they would both have been out of the race. The problem is that Lando is only focused on Max, Max, Max, but meanwhile, he simply forgets to brake for the first corner."

He added,

"Max braked at least five metres earlier. So you could call that a mistake too. And Zak Brown has often talked about Max's driving style, saying he finds him too aggressive at the start, but I'm sure he'll have to address his own driver now."

Max Verstappen is 24 points behind Lando Norris in the championship, and if the Dutch driver wins both the sprint and the race this weekend, he'll take the championship to the last race of the season.