Mercedes celebrated sealing the constructors’ title on the podium in a special ceremony at Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The Silver Arrows have been upstaged by customer team McLaren in the last two seasons, but their dominant 2026 team saw them win the championship with three rounds to spare.

Mercedes staff were joined on the podium by team principal Toto Wolff and their two drivers, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

Oscar Piastri fans haven’t forgiven McLaren over 2025 celebration absence

McLaren’s triumph was marked in a similar fashion at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, but Oscar Piastri was controversially absent from proceedings.

Piastri, who was leading the standings at the time, was carrying out post-race media duties when his colleagues were invited onto the rostrum. McLaren said they weren’t informed about the plans until the last moment, which prevented them from contacting the Australian.

It was a sensitive moment for Zak Brown and Andrea Stella given that Piastri was unhappy with the management from the pit wall in the race. He felt Norris should have let him back past after making contact during a lap-one overtake.

And Piastri’s absence came just a fortnight after the now-infamous events of Monza, where he had to relinquish second place after Norris’ slow pit stop. That prompted an avalanche of speculation about favouritism within the team.

Evidently, some Piastri supporters are still unhappy that he wasn’t included in the celebrations. One X user got ‘flashbacks [to] when Oscar was snubbed’ as they watched Mercedes.

“Look at that, turns out you can have both drivers on the podium when celebrating the WCC, even if they didn’t make it to the podium themselves,” a fan account remarked on X.

“@ZBrownCEO look at that!” another pointedly said.

“You’re telling me waiting exists? Woah,” a separate sarcastic comment read.

Other comments included ‘seeing that scene really brought back some emotion’ and ‘it remains one of the most disrespectful things they could have done’.

Piastri finished sixth on Sunday, while Norris took victory for the third time this season.