12/09/2024
NEWS STORY
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have reacted to Andrea Stella's admission that the Woking team will "bias support" the Briton.
In the aftermath of the Monza event, where pole-man Norris was demoted to third by the end of the opening lap and never recovered, McLaren admits that with 8 races remaining and the Briton being its mathematically best chance of claiming the drivers' title it will need to favour him.
"It has obviously been something we have discussed a lot in the last few days," Piastri told Autosport in Baku, "selfishly as a driver in my own interests, of course team orders are not that fun but in saying that I realise there is a much bigger picture here than just myself.
"I race for a team that has given me my opportunity in F1 and given me the opportunity to win races in Formula 1 within 18 months of being here, so I have a lot of gratitude for that but again the bigger picture is about much more than just me. We are trying to achieve both championships which for the team is an incredibly big thing.
"Of course the constructors' is one thing but if you have the opportunity to win both championships in a year then as a team it is a massive objective to try and win both," he admitted.
"Being selfish, I would prefer to not have it," he continued, "but I am very aware it is not all about me and I'm happy to play a supporting role at this point in the season, I think any earlier in the season it would have probably been excessive, but I think now it is an appropriate time to try and help the team win both championships."
However, with McLaren having gone public, and no doubt not wishing to appear the bad guy, Norris insists that he doesn't expect his Australian teammate to simply roll over for him even if it means race wins.
"In general, probably for lower positions, but if he's fought for a win and he's deserving of a win, then he deserves to win," said the Briton.
Asked how he would feel if he were to lose out on the championship by a handful of points, he said: "I'm sure it will hurt, but I'm also here to race. And if a driver is doing better than me and performing, I need to do a better job, so I wouldn't want to take that away from someone.
"I also don't want to be given a championship," he insisted. "Yes, it would be great to have a championship, and on the short term you feel amazing, but I don't think you'd be proud of that in the long run.
"That's not something I want, that's not how I want to win a championship. I want to win it by fighting against Max, by beating Max, beating my competitors, and proving that I'm the best on track. And that's how I want to win."
Despite Stella's admission, Norris insists that he and Piastri are still free to race, however not if it jeopardises the result.
"I think there will be certain times when it's just not smart to battle, but if you go into a lap one and that's on your mind, that's the wrong approach," he said, a clear reference to Monza. "I think you both have to go into lap one with the right approach, which is to attack it, to try and go forward. As soon as soon as you start thinking about other things that's normally when it starts to go wrong.
"Monza was a slightly different case. We've looked back at that and we've resolved that. The main thing is we came out of Turn 4 in first and third, and we had the biggest gap in the world going into the corner. It was not ideal in my world, but also for us as a team, that's not how we should have gone racing there. So, I think clearer instructions of how we can race each other and how much we can risk with one another.
"Oscar is still fighting for his own racing, he's still going out and doing his stuff. And it could be that there's no time this year that he needs to help me. It's more that I've got Oscar's help when needs be, but not like he's still going out with that intent in every session. He's just fighting for himself and going to do his job."
Fact is, Monza was the latest in a long line of fluffed starts by the Briton and nobody can expect his teammate to hold off whilst he gets his act together, rival drivers certainly won't do so.
"It still needs some more discussion," admitted Piastri, "but I think the main point is it is not just me pulling over for Lando at every single race, that is how none of us - including Lando - want to go racing. Trying to go through all the scenarios is impossible and of course we don't want to discuss that publicly.
"The main one is that if we feel that someone has done a much better job on a weekend, whichever way it is, we want that person to be rewarded and that is of course where it becomes a bit tricky still and we need to continue discussing that.
"But it is not simply a blanket 'I'm going to be behind Lando in every single race' and every decision that is taken here on out because I still have things that I want to achieve in the championship and try to boost my standing in the championship."
Referring to Monza and the move that would now be construed as breaking the team's so-called 'papaya rules', Piastri said: In those exact same scenarios some things would be different. In those circumstances what I did was fine. I thought it was a good move and of course, the consequence of coming out of the corner in first and third is not what we want as a team.
"Of course, it takes both of our co-operation to make sure that result doesn't happen again but in those circumstances it was all by the book, there was nothing wrong with that, but it was purely just that the result out of the corner was not exactly what we wanted.
"In saying that, the result at the end of the race in my opinion wasn't dictated because of that, it was because Ferrari pulled off a big gamble on strategy and without that with Charles, we would have still finished first and second."
Of course, should Norris win the title he would clearly become the team's de facto number one and as a result Piastri would have to continue to yield.
Having been through a similar situation himself, no doubt his manager, Mark Webber is already in discussion with other teams, Aston Martin 2026 being an obvious attraction.