For much of this season, the McLaren garage looked like the happiest place in Formula 1. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were winning races, trading podiums, and pushing each other toward the front. The team kept saying there were no number-one drivers, no team orders, just two guys racing flat out on merit. It sounded perfect.
Then the championship ended, Norris took the title by two points, and many people started asking whether it was really that fair after all. Whispers turned into shouts that Zak Brown and McLaren’s “equal treatment” might have leaned a little heavier toward Lando when it mattered most. And one very famous voice from Hollywood decided he’d heard enough.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan goes nuclear on Zak Brown
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the actor from The Walking Dead and a huge racing fan, grabbed his phone and let Zak Brown have it on X. He called the McLaren boss a “weenie,” said he “screws up his own team but only cries about EVERYTHING else,” and straight-up felt bad for Oscar Piastri.
“Hope he bails,” Morgan wrote. Then he doubled down: “Zak Brown deserves shit all” and hoped Piastri would “tell him to shove it where the sun don’t shine.” He even took a swing at the whole “Papaya rules” thing, saying the championship felt handed to Norris.
It wasn’t polite, but it was honest. And it hit a nerve because a whole lot of people, inside and outside F1, have been wondering the same thing. McLaren kept saying both drivers were free to race, but when the math got tight, some calls looked like they helped Lando more than Oscar. Morgan just said the quiet part out loud, and in Hollywood style.
He’s not some random fan with a keyboard either. He’s a legit enthusiast with a big following, and when he speaks, people listen. Suddenly, the whole “equal treatment” story had a celebrity megaphone pointing out the cracks. His posts weren’t just angry tweets; they were the voice of everyone who watched Piastri play the perfect teammate all year while Lando collected the trophy.
Right after the season ended, Lando Norris made it clear just how much Oscar Piastri did for him in Abu Dhabi. Piastri started on the hard tyre while Norris was on softer rubber. That let Oscar go long, chase down Max Verstappen, and keep the Red Bull driver from backing the McLarens into the pack.
Lando Norris admits Piastri’s tyre choice was important
Norris told Sky Sports there wasn’t an exact plan for Piastri to pass him on the first lap, but he was “very happy letting Oscar go.” He said Piastri started on the hard “to try and push Max into doing something.” Basically, Oscar was the blocker so Lando could cruise to the title.
Norris was quick to give credit: “Oscar was just as much a part of trying to achieve what we’ve achieved, and I have to thank him for that.”
He even said he wished Piastri had won again before the end of the year, after going winless since the Dutch Grand Prix in August. It was classy, but it also showed the whole world how the final weekend really worked. Piastri sacrificed his own shot to make sure Lando got the crown.
One minute, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is calling out Zak Brown for supposedly favouring Lando. The next minute, Lando Norris himself is thanking Oscar for playing wingman in the title-deciding race. Same story, two different angles, both proving the McLaren “equal treatment” line was always a little more complicated than it sounded.
Morgan spoke for the fans who felt Piastri got the short end. Norris spoke for the teammate who knows exactly what it took. Either way, the championship is over, Lando’s got the trophy, and the debate about how fair it all was isn’t going anywhere.