The ghosts of Formula 1’s most controversial finales refuse to stay buried. Just three days after Lando Norris clinched his maiden World Drivers’ Championship in a nail-biting Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a bombshell has detonated in the paddock.

Secured, never-before-seen footage from the 2025 Abu Dhabi GP weekend—allegedly showing deliberate team interference by McLaren—has surfaced, thrusting the sport back into a maelstrom of accusations, appeals, and outright fury.

Red Bull Racing, still smarting from their narrow defeat, has fired off an urgent demand for FIA clarification, only for the governing body to deliver a response that’s left the F1 world reeling.

The outcome? A potential reopening of the championship, fines in the seven figures, and whispers of a full-scale investigation that could redefine McLaren’s triumphant season as a tainted legacy.

It was supposed to be McLaren’s moment of glory. On December 7, under the glittering lights of Yas Marina Circuit, Norris crossed the line 0.847 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, sealing a 12-point championship lead that had tantalized fans all season.

The papaya-clad team erupted in celebration, with CEO Zak Brown hoisting Norris aloft amid a sea of orange confetti. Teammate Oscar Piastri, finishing a respectable P3, flashed a grin that masked deeper frustrations from a year of “Papaya Rules”—McLaren’s controversial internal directive prioritizing Norris in tight title battles.

Verstappen, denied a fifth straight crown, offered a curt podium handshake, his Red Bull team already grumbling about strategy calls and on-track skirmishes. But no one could have predicted the unearthed video that would unravel it all.

The footage, reportedly obtained by an anonymous FIA insider and leaked to motorsport journalists late last night, originates from Free Practice 3 (FP3) on December 6. In the clip—grainy but unmistakable—McLaren’s pit wall is captured in a tense exchange.

Strategist Will Joseph is heard instructing Norris via radio: “Box now, Lando.

We’ve got intel Tsunoda’s not pushing—use the inside line to block his flyer.” The camera pans to trackside, where Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull RB21 dawdles at the approach to Turn 12, a high-speed right-hander infamous for its unforgiving run-off.

Norris, on a hot lap, dives aggressively inward, forcing Tsunoda into the gravel in a plume of dust and debris. The Japanese driver, visibly stunned, throws up his hand in apology as Norris powers on to set a session-topping 1:23.912.

What makes this footage “secured” and “never-before-seen”? It was pulled from McLaren’s internal telemetry server, tagged as “confidential review” and shielded under FIA protocols for post-session analysis.

Sources close to the matter reveal it was never submitted to stewards during the weekend’s impeding investigation, which resulted in a mere €10,000 fine for Red Bull and a formal warning for Tsunoda.

McLaren escaped unscathed, with Norris later joking in a press conference, “Yuki was just taking a scenic tour—happens in practice.” But the video tells a darker story: deliberate orchestration to kneecap a rival’s session, potentially tilting the grid in Norris’s favor for qualifying.

Word of the leak spread like wildfire through the Abu Dhabi paddock by dawn. Red Bull’s Christian Horner, nursing a scotch in the team’s hospitality suite, wasted no time.

At 7:45 AM local time—barely 15 minutes after the clip hit private FIA channels—he fired off a formal missive to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem: “This footage evidences systematic unsporting conduct by McLaren, breaching Articles 27.5 and 33.3 of the International Sporting Code.

We demand immediate clarification, full disclosure, and punitive measures, including a review of the championship standings.” The Austrian outfit, backed by advisor Helmut Marko, argued the incident not only impeded Tsunoda but indirectly cost Verstappen crucial setup data, as the disrupted session forced Red Bull into suboptimal tweaks ahead of a qualifying where Norris snatched pole by 0.156 seconds.

The FIA’s response came swifter than a pit stop—astonishing in its severity. By 9:00 AM, a terse statement from the World Motor Sport Council landed in inboxes worldwide: “Following Red Bull Racing’s request and preliminary review of the submitted material, the FIA confirms the authenticity of the footage.

McLaren Technology Group has been summoned for a virtual hearing on December 12.

Provisional sanctions include a €500,000 fine, a 10-point deduction from the 2026 Constructors’ Championship, and a mandatory audit of all team radio communications from the Abu Dhabi weekend. The FIA reserves the right to revisit race results pending further evidence.” It’s a thunderbolt.

No such mid-offseason championship probe has occurred since the 2021 Abu Dhabi debacle, where Michael Masi’s infamous safety car call handed Verstappen the title over Lewis Hamilton. That saga led to Masi’s ousting and lingering scars; this could eclipse it.

McLaren’s camp is in lockdown mode. Zak Brown, the affable American at the helm, issued a defiant rebuttal from Woking: “These allegations are baseless and timed for maximum disruption. The footage is out of context—standard strategic dialogue in a high-stakes session.

We’ve cooperated fully with the FIA all season and trust the process to vindicate us.” Yet cracks are showing.

Insiders whisper of internal discord, with Piastri’s camp allegedly tipping off the leaker after feeling sidelined by the “Papaya Rules.” Piastri, who entered Abu Dhabi 16 points adrift but clawed to P3 via a masterclass in tire management, has been vocal about parity.

“Team orders are one thing,” he told Sky Sports post-race, “but when they bleed into practice, it’s a line crossed.” His comments, innocuous at the time, now read like prophecy.

The ripple effects are seismic.

Sponsors are circling—title partner Google has paused a €20 million digital campaign pending clarity, citing “brand alignment risks.” Ferrari, ever opportunistic, smells blood, with team principal Fred Vasseur quipping, “Clean racing wins titles, not clips from the cutting room floor.” Verstappen, refreshingly candid on his Beats by Dre podcast, didn’t mince words: “If this is true, it’s a joke.

We fought fair all year—Max out.

Lando’s a great driver, but championships aren’t won in shadows.” Norris himself, holed up in Monaco, posted a cryptic Instagram story: a papaya emoji shattered like glass, captioned “Truth will out.” Fans, divided as ever, flood social media—#McLarenCheat trending with 2.3 million posts in hours, countered by #PapayaPower defenses from the British driver’s legions.

To understand the escalation, rewind to the Abu Dhabi weekend’s powder keg. FP3 was chaos incarnate: an errant Red Bull can on track in FP1 sparked memes and marshal scrambles; a pit-lane pile-up in FP3 saw Tsunoda clip Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, drawing €5,000 fines all around.

Amid it, McLaren’s strategists shone, outfoxing Red Bull’s undercut attempts in the race proper. Norris’s victory wasn’t fluke—he nursed fading hards through a mid-race safety car, emerging ahead of Verstappen’s fresher mediums. But the footage suggests the seeds were sown earlier, in that fateful Turn 12 tango.

FIA scrutiny isn’t new for 2025. The season brimmed with flashpoints: Norris’s controversial weave in Brazil qualifying, Piastri’s unpunished track limits abuse in Monza, Verstappen’s gravel-trap dive on George Russell in Qatar. Each drew fines, but none threatened the crown.

This video, however, strikes at the heart—evidence of premeditated advantage in a title decider. Legal eagles predict appeals galore: Red Bull could push for Norris’s Abu Dhabi result scrubbed, retroactively crowning Verstappen if points flip.

Piastri, mathematically eliminated but ethically aggrieved, might join the fray, demanding his P3 upgraded to P2 and the championship reopened entirely.

As the sun sets on another Abu Dhabi chapter, F1 teeters on a knife’s edge. The sport, still healing from 2021’s “manipulated” finale, faces a reckoning.

Will the FIA’s probe restore faith or fuel more cynicism? For McLaren, the dream of a first constructors’ title since 1998 hangs by a thread. For Red Bull, it’s vindication or vendetta. And for Norris, the boy wonder turned champion, it’s a trial by fire.

One thing’s certain: in the €2 billion circus of Formula 1, no footage stays buried forever. The checkered flag has fallen, but the race for truth is just revving up.