After weeks of refusal to introduce team orders between its two drivers, McLaren has finally decided to prioritize Lando Norris and ask Oscar Piastri to help his teammate in the fight for the driver’s championship against Max Verstappen whenever possible. However, this compromise on the part of Piastri has come with its own set of caveats.
This decision from McLaren comes on the back of the Italian Grand Prix weekend, where the team failed to capitalize on the misfortunes of Red Bull and Max Verstappen in closing down the gap in the drivers’ standings significantly.
With McLaren now planning to address their previous mistakes, Piastri has recently opened up about this new driver dynamics within the team. According to the Aussie driver, playing a supporting role for Norris this season is nothing but a favor that he expects the Briton to pay back in the future as and when he needs it. As per a report from speedcafe, Piastri said,
“Knowing that it will be remembered in the future… and there have been things in the past where, whether it be with upgrades or strategy in some races that have always been remembered in the future, so that’s kind of our way of going racing.”
The 23-year-old also spoke about this being the optimum time for him to start helping Norris as he is now realistically out of the championship hunt, although not mathematically. Norris’s gap to Verstappen being 62 points with eight races remaining is much more likely to be caught up than Piastri’s gap of 106 points.
He also mentioned that it would have been too much to ask from him if McLaren had told him to start helping Norris any earlier in the season.
Piastri will help Norris but not unconditionally
While McLaren has made it clear that they will prioritize Norris over Piastri, the Aussie has explained that certain conditions needed to be met for him to agree to the role of a supporting driver.
The condition is that Piastri won’t hold himself up just for the sake of letting Norris by or letting him finish ahead of him every single time and much of it will depend on the situation of the race. If Piastri is in a position to win or finish way ahead of his teammate, he will not slow down.
“The main point is it’s not purely just going to be me pulling over for Lando every single race. That’s how none of us, including Lando, want to go racing,” Piastri added.
Oscar Piastri won’t have to hand race wins to Lando Norris under McLaren’s new team orders ‘lite’.@SportmphMark asks what happens when policy meets reality — potentially costing the team an #F1 drivers’ title: https://t.co/3imtlCn9YZ
— Motor Sport magazine (@Motor_Sport) September 13, 2024
What’s also reassuring for Piastri is the fact that his manager, Mark Webber, a former Red Bull driver is in the loop with the team regarding all these conversations.
He is famously known for not liking the role of a second driver against Sebastian Vettel during his championship years and would make sure that McLaren holds up its end of the bargain to help Piastri in the future.
