Oscar Piastri drove an unbelievably mature race to take home his second Grand Prix win in Baku. After taking the lead with a bold overtake into turn 1, he had to fend off Charles Leclerc for the rest of the race. However, BBC’s F1 expert Ben Edwards believes Lando Norris played a vital role in helping his teammate take the chequered flag first.
While discussing the win on BBC’s F1: Chequered Flag podcast, Edwards pointed out how Norris helped Piastri come out in P2 after his pitstop. The Brit slowed Sergio Perez down to ensure did not undercut his teammate for P2. This was a vital intervention as Piastri could go and attack Leclerc on his fresh hard tires to take the lead and eventually win.
Edwards said, “With a little bit of help as well from Lando Norris who slowed down Sergio Perez, who was likely to go ahead of Oscar Piastri when he came out of his pitstop. That helped Oscar to stay in second place to then put the pressure on Charles Leclerc.”
Even team boss Andrea Stella talked about the team spirit and how the two drivers helped each other to maximize the points. Norris’ P4 was also an incredible result especially after he started the race from P15. Still, it was a role reversal of what McLaren were ideally aiming to do in Baku — prioritize Norris for the drivers’ championship.
Nevertheless, this effort was enough to see McLaren take the lead in the constructors’s championship. The Woking team’s efforts at improving the MCL38 have finally come to fruition and they are now in the driver’s seat in the championship battle with Red Bull. However, a technical controversy still lurks in the background for McLaren.
The ‘Flexi wing’ complaints surround McLaren’s purple patch
Thanks to Piastri and Norris’ strong performances in Baku it has given McLaren a 20-point lead in the constructors’ standings. Norris also reduced the deficit to Max Verstappen by three points to bring it down to 59 points in the drivers’ championship. However, much of the discussion after the race is surrounding the MCL38’s ‘Flexi’ rear wing.
Camera footage capturing the rear wing’s movements while Piastri was leading is going viral on X. In the video, the rear wing on the straights appears to be rotating with the flaps not aligning with the wing tips.
The rotating rear wing without the DRS gave Piastri an added advantage by shedding drag at high speeds. This may have diminished the DRS advantage for the chasing Ferrari man. This is exactly what Ferrari and Red Bull had been complaining about all along, mainly about the front wing.
I’ll leave this here @ScuderiaFerrari @FIA
The entire DRS flap is rotating under load. You can see at the pivot points, the flap is not aligning with the wing tips.
The flap is backing off at high speed, shedding drag. How is this okay? pic.twitter.com/OL5IijqnJV
— B (@brakeboosted) September 15, 2024
Despite noting this to the FIA, there’s yet to be a comment or action by the governing body. As reported by Toto Motorsport, for now, the ‘Flexi’ wing is deemed to be legal as long as it passes the load test, which it has. As a result, Christian Horner has commented that if this sort of wing design is acceptable, Red Bull may also introduce a similar solution on the RB20.
