Anyone who has followed any Formula 1 for any period of time, specifically during seasons featuring tight world championships battles, knows that you need to be extremely careful when it comes to trusting any single source of media.
We all know that biases exist; we have them too. And we all know that nothing can be turned into something simply because somebody wants to push a narrative and generate engagements and clicks.
On one hand, fair play. On another, let's not do that at the expense of honesty.
In recent times (2021 to present, specifically), it's been anti-Max Verstappen propaganda, propaganda that's been pushed by everyone from random fan accounts on Twitter to Sky Sports. Lando Norris' emergence as a title threat from the middle of 2024 has made it worse, specifically among the British contingent that will defend him at all costs.
But Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix took a new and unusual turn when it came to Oscar Piastri.
Piastri was justifiably livid after Norris misjudged his position, ran out of room, and had to run into his teammate to avoid slamming into the back of Verstappen's car at the start of the race.
McLaren, which forced Piastri to give Norris back a spot in Monza simply because Norris had a bad pit stop, took no action, and Norris predictably finished third ahead of Piastri in fourth on a track where there are very few overtaking opportunities post-opening lap.
Piastri was clearly upset about it over the radio, and he made that clear on multiple occasions throughout the rest of the race. The precedent was set, and the code of conduct – or lack thereof – was established.
So when video and audio appeared to show Piastri cutting off Zak Brown as Brown congratulated him on helping McLaren clinch their second consecutive constructor championship, the media took it and ran with it.
It was a nothingburger of nothingburgers, and anybody who had any semblance of integrity to wait before pushing this "Piastri villain arc" narrative probably could have figured out that he didn't blatantly disconnect his team boss while he was giving him a message.
But the facts didn't suit the narrative, and while this situation wasn't as obnoxious as the situation NASCAR fans now call the "Great Noose Hoax", the media still jumped way too early.
The reality was that Piastri heard none of it. He had already disconnected the car's systems, and there was a delay between that happening and the broadcast's pickup of Brown's message. Only the viewers actually heard the start of what Brown had to say, and the cutoff of what was picked up by the broadcast happened to take place mid-sentence.
Sure, I think it's safe to say that a large portion of Formula 1's fanbase agrees that Norris is Brown's preferred driver, and McLaren have done absolutely nothing to fight off that narrative, even though Piastri has led the world championship for much of the 2025 season. I don't disagree that Brown's words rang hollow at best, in that moment.
But come on. It is straight-up disrespectful to push this sort of divisive nonsense without knowing all – or really any – of the facts.
Accusing Piastri of such petty behavior with no concrete proof whatsoever is even more childish. It was nothing more than unprofessional from an ever-divisive pool of media seeking to capitalize on drama by making a completely innocuous situation bigger than it ever was.
With six races remaining on the 2025 Formula 1 schedule, Piastri has a 22-point lead over Norris and a 63-point lead over Verstappen in the world championship standings. Race 19 is the United States Grand Prix, which is scheduled to take place at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, October 19. ABC is set to provide live coverage beginning at 2:55 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!