16/09/2024
NEWS STORY
In a move unlikely to impress fans of Oscar Piastri, Andrea Stella claims that the Australian's victory owes a lot to teammate Lando Norris.
While the Australian did the donkey work in passing pole-man Charles Leclerc and subsequently fending off the Ferrari driver for 31 laps, the McLaren team boss believes Norris played a significant part in his victory.
Once the pit stops began, Norris, who had started from 15th after failing to make it out of Q1, moved up through the field and was running sixth when Sergio Perez made his stop on Lap 13. The Mexican rejoined the race behind Norris finally passing him two laps later as first Charles Leclerc and then Piastri made their stops.
Once Carlos Sainz had also stopped on Lap 17, Leclerc reassumed the lead ahead of Piastri, the Australian making his race-winning move three laps later.
"Perez was undercutting and effectively, without Lando's help, Perez could have pitted and stayed ahead of Oscar, and the race could have unfolded in a completely different way," claimed Stella at race end.
"So, I think 50% of Oscar's victory today is shared with Lando," he added, "it just shows that we are approaching racing as one team.
"We had conversations before the weekend where we would bias one way or the other," he continued. "But we approach every weekend trying to maximise the result for the team, and if one driver needs help, the other driver will do it."
Indeed, other than Adrian Newey's move to Aston Martin it was McLaren's admission of "bias support" to Norris in forthcoming races that dominated talk in the Baku paddock.
Funny enough, on Sunday the same commentators lauding Piastri's determined defence of his lead, only two weeks earlier had been demanding that McLaren introduce team orders in order to aid Norris' title bid.
Asked about Piastri's move on Leclerc, Stella admitted that he feared it would end in tears... or at least the run-off.
"When I watched it live and I saw him going, my instinct said he's going to go long, because the delay in the braking point," said the Italian.
"He came from quite far, and still he negotiated the apex. So yeah, I was surprised. But Oscar is always surprising us with his ability, and I would say today, he gave also a demonstration of his mental strength.
"He drove like a driver that has a lot of experience, that has been under this kind of pressure before, that can look with one eye at the mirror, with the other eye at where the braking point is."
To the comments...
Check out our Sunday gallery from Baku here.