Oscar Piastri pulled off a masterful overtake on McLaren teammate Lando Norris on the opening lap of the Italian Grand Prix to take the lead in the race. Since Piastri pulled off such an audacious move on Norris that ended up compromising the Briton immensely, many have referred to him as selfish. Norris too once referred to his teammate in the same way.
In an old video, Norris said, “I’m a team player because obviously, that’s what I think of. Oscar doesn’t. Oscar just thinks of putting it on pole or something, whereas I think of the team”.
The #4 driver gave his thoughts on Piastri back then in light spirits. Although the way things have panned out recently, it may seem that there is some truth to what he said. Even at the Hungarian GP earlier this year, Norris ultimately decided to follow his team’s orders and let Piastri through, knowing that the Australian was perhaps more deserving than him to win the race.
We’ve wrapped up racing in Europe for 2024
Are you surprised to see Oscar Piastri as the leading scorer on the continent? #F1 pic.twitter.com/H1y7QT3K24
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 5, 2024
However, at the Italian GP last weekend, Piastri, instead of helping Norris, seemingly compromised the Briton’s race further. Soon after the #81 driver overtook Norris, the latter also lost another place to Charles Leclerc, who eventually went on to win.
Many experts believe that Piastri and McLaren should have helped Norris, who has a better chance of fighting Max Verstappen for the drivers’ championship this year. While Norris too admitted that it would have been nice to have team orders in his favor, he also made it clear that as a racer, he would rather like to win on merit.
Norris has no interest in begging for race wins
When asked during the post-race presser if he feels McLaren should have implemented team orders to help him, Norris replied, “I mean, I would love it, but… it’s not up to me. It’s tough because obviously, I think as any driver you don’t want [team orders]. You don’t want things to just be played that way and yeah… it’s a tough one”.
He then explained how ultimately it is he who has to do better to win on merit. The Briton stated that there would have been no discussions of team orders if he had managed to just win the race.
With McLaren not implementing team orders and Norris only finishing P3 at Monza, the gap between him and championship leader Verstappen is still a whopping 62 points. The Briton now has eight more races remaining in the season to try and overtake the Dutchman.
