Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri discuss about McLaren’s new stance of support towards the British driver in the quest to win both F1 titles in 2024.
After losing out to Ferrari in Monza where Piastri made a move on Norris on Lap 1 in a surprise, McLaren has finally taken the step to put it eggs in the basket of the British driver albeit by still staying with this ethos under the papaya rules.
That move against Norris was fine but McLaren lost out to Charles Leclerc which is what was discussed after the grand prix. And that is the kind of scenario McLaren wants to avoid, even though Piastri will provide support to Norris in the championship quest.
The two cleared that Piastri will not give free way to Norris per se, that if the Australian has passed the Brit and is faster by a good margin, McLaren will not play the team order game and will let the former take the glory if so be it.
Piastri, however, adds that there could be plenty of scenarios in play and only when things happen, is when they will understand what’s best for them to do. In some ways, the rules are still vague, but at least McLaren has thrown some weight towards Norris.
The Australian is playing a long game as well, where he knows if things work in his favour in future, McLaren will do the same. He revealed that his manager and former F1 racer Mark Webber is part of these discussions too, considering his experience.
Norris, though, doesn’t want things handed to him per se. He is grateful for the chance and support, but he will play second fiddle if there is blatant situation of Piastri being quicker. His rival Max Verstappen threw his opinion as well, but it was more mind games.
New McLaren stance –
Norris: “I mean, good, thankful. How do I say it? I mean, he’s still fighting for his own racing. He’s still going out and doing the 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 he’s still going out with the intent of every session of fighting for himself and going to do his job. In general, probably [it will be] for lower positions. But if he’s fought for a win and he’s deserving of a win, then he deserves to win. We’ve had decisions before, and we’ve had things that we’ve run through – we’ve just not publicly said it, so it’s more that we’ve just told you what you want to hear finally than anything else.
“But we’ve always worked well as a team. I think now there’s a bit more of a structure to it and an understanding that we have internally on for what positions will change, for what scenarios will change, how we can help one another, and obviously, how he can help me. But it’s not like he goes out every session now, and that’s his only job – if he goes out and he’s better than me, performs better than me, out-qualifies me and wins the race, that’s because he’s done a better job. I am happy, like I said, there’s been plenty of things done through the last few years, we have done things but it has just not been public. People can say whatever they want but we know how we work, we have a good guideline, good structure, so it is fine.”
Piastri: “It’s obviously been something we’ve discussed a lot in the last few days. Of course, selfishly, as a driver in my own interests, of course, team orders are not that fun, but, in saying that, I realise that there’s a much bigger picture here than just myself. So, I race for a team that’s given me my opportunity in F1 and a team that has given me the opportunity to win races in F1 within 18 months of being here. So I have a lot of gratitude for that. This is about much more than just me.
“And we’re trying to achieve both championships, which, for the team, is an incredibly big thing – the Constructors’ is one thing but, if you have the opportunity to win both championships in the year. Then, as a team, of course it’s a massive objective to try and achieve both. So, of course, being selfish, I would prefer to not have it. But I’m very aware that it’s not just about me, and I’m happy to play a supporting role at this point of the season. I think any earlier in the season, it would have been probably excessive. But I think now it’s an appropriate time to try and help the team win both championships.”
Work well together –
Norris: “We work very well together. I think, as drivers, you always want to fight for yourself. So there’s always going to be things which I’ll be biased towards on my side, and he’s going to be biased in his side, but everything we’ve done is come together as the best compromises for one another. Yeah, we have our own principles. We have our own way of working. Nothing will go unnoticed from what he might do.”
Papaya rules –
Norris: “Many times we have come close, papaya rules have been applied, just because you hear it few times now you think it is something that just started now, it is probably just classed as papaya rules, as we like to come with different names for different things, but it has been there between you and your teammate, in theory, it hasn’t worked as much in the past but we want to make sure between us, that is working.”
Piastri: “It is needs a bit more discussion but I think the main point is it’s not purely just going to be me pulling over for Lando every single race because that’s not any 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 but the main one is 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.
“That’s where, of course, it becomes a little bit tricky still, and we need to continue discussing that. But it’s not simply a blanket ‘I’m going to be behind Lando in every single race, in every decision that’s ever taken from here on out’, because I still have things that I want to achieve in the championship and trying to boost my standing in the Drivers’ Championship. Of course, as a team, we’re not winning the Constructors’ championship, so we need to make sure that we win that so it’s very important that we maintain that kind of trust and respect.”
Monza situation –
Norris: “Yes, because I think there’ll be certain times when it’s just not smart to battle, though. I think if you go into Lap 1 and that’s on your mind, that’s the wrong approach, I think you both have to go into Lap 1 with the right approach, which is to attack and to try and go forward. So, as soon as you start thinking of other things, that’s normally when it starts to go wrong. So I think Monza was a slightly different case. But yeah, we looked back at that, and we’ve resolved that. But, from now on, we’re still fighting for each other, but, from that point on, then we’ll try and help one another.
“A lot of that’s between us. But to say as simply as – Monza, the second and third would have been swapped around, something like that. Things have been clarified and cleared up. I think the main thing is we came out of turn four (in Monza) first and third and we had a big gap going into the corner. Yeah, that’s not an ideal point in my world but also from the point of team as well, that’s not how we should have gone racing there. There are clearer instructions on how we can race each other. That has been cleared up.”
Piastri: “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. So, we have some adjustments to that. Like these are things we have discussed, in Monza, there was a pretty specific scenario where we did have a decent gap to the car in third.
“And being honest, there was not that many ways done to be not first and second, and we did. So, of course there were discussions that we spoke about, there’s no blanket rule that ‘I can’t attack Lando or overtake Lando’, of course our way of racing has always been to look after each other which is what papaya rules are, to look after each other and not crash into each other, so that is still exactly the same and yeah, in different scenarios whether there are other cars around, of course you need to use your instinct, not as just simple as wait for one car to do one thing or whatever, you have to play it how it comes to you at that time, so that’s where…of course, it is not that easy to just say, the scenario again because the likelihood of having that scenario again is probably less.”
Big ask for team to ask you to help –
Piastri: “It is a big ask. But as I said, they’ve obviously given me a massive opportunity to be in this position both in F1 and at the front of the grid in F1. It’s something that won’t be forgotten, I guess, in the future. So I know that, if it was the other way around, then we would be having exactly the same discussions about Driver A or Driver B. So I think for me, knowing that it will be remembered in the future… there have been things in the past where, whether it be with upgrades or strategy at some races that have always been remembered in the future. So that’s our way of going racing.
“If it was me in this scenario, then we’d be having exactly the same discussions. For both sides, it’s never easy, because, as a driver, you always want to win on merit and because you’ve done a better job on the day, not because of having assistance. Of course, if it’s the difference between winning a world championship or not, then you would take the assistance. But I think the belief and the thinking for all of us in the team is that we want to try and do everything as much as possible on merit, with some help along the way.”
Will hurt if you lose by just –
Norris: “I’m sure it will hurt. But I’m also here to race, and if a driver is doing better than me, and outperforming, he’s just doing a better job. So I wouldn’t want to take that away from someone. And I also don’t want to be given a championship. Yes, it would be great to have a championship, and short term, you’d feel amazing, but I don’t think you’d be proud of that in the long run. And 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.”
Mark Webber’s involvement –
Piastri: “He’s very much involved in the discussions with myself and the team, of course. I think some of the team orders have been used for him are very different circumstances to what we have, so there has been direct advice on to what happened last time, blah, blah, blah. It is always trying to work with the team on what we are wiling to do in support and what we are not wiling to do so much, and that kind of guidance rather than yes and no for world championship.”
Max Verstappen’s say: “I’m not disappointed. At the end of the day, of course, they do what they want. It’s not my problem. I have my own problems at the moment. So, yeah, of course, from Oscar’s side, he’s closer to Lando than Lando is to me in the championship. But it’s something that they have to deal with. And no [I am not surprised with the decision], because they’ve never really been that far apart anyway, in the championship as well. And also from Oscar’s side, you come in as the number one driver. Both of them. I don’t think Oscar is the type of driver that needs to be labeled as number two anyway.”
Here’s Andrea Stella on McLaren having real chance to win both F1 titles
Here’s Christian Horner on McLaren car
Here’s McLaren dissecting strategy
Here’s Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Andrea Stella on Lap 1 scene
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