McLaren’s Oscar Piastri declared that he would not be helping teammate Lando Norris in his championship battle with Max Verstappen. Piastri remains focused on his own performance and insisted that McLaren’s Constructors’ title pursuit would be his priority.
Norris is 70 points behind Verstappen, who leads with just nine races remaining. To win the title, Norris would ideally need to win every Grand Prix left this year. However, the gap that was on Piastri’s mind ahead of the Italian GP weekend was 30 points — the margin between McLaren and Red Bull at the top of the constructors’ championship standings.
Piastri, who is just 46 points behind Norris, wants to rack up wins for himself too. That way, he has a chance of finishing ahead of the two-time Grand Prix winner at the end of the season. “I think I will continue to approach each weekend with the goal of trying to win races,” the Melbourne-born driver asserted as per Motorsport.
Piastri wants to contribute to McLaren’s championship success more than to his teammate’s fight with some other driver right now. “We are still behind in the constructors’ championship and we want to make sure we win. My best contribution to that goal is to try to win races.”
At the same time, Piastri did not completely rule out helping Norris. He stated that if the gap between Norris and Verstappen narrowed further, he would help the former. Additionally, if McLaren issues team orders, he will not stand in the Woking-based outfit’s way.
However, until Verstappen’s lead decreases, Piastri’s focus will be on himself and McLaren. The top brass at the British outfit agrees with Piastri, as they too, prioritize the team over Norris.
McLaren bosses not in favor of making Norris their no. 1 driver
Despite Norris having a chance of defeating Verstappen in the championship, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella does not want to prioritize the Bristol-born driver over Piastri for the remainder of the season. Stella feels that preferential treatment would not be a good way for the team to approach races. Being fair and giving both of them an equal shot at winning remains the priority.
: Andrea Stella confirms the team will not prioritize Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri in the championship fight for now, emphasizing “integrity and fairness” in their approach. Stella highlighted that Norris must continue performing at a high level to earn his position on… pic.twitter.com/fXNJcsKCMR
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CEO Zak Brown insisted that for Norris to beat Verstappen, he has to continue pushing. Rather than completely relying on his team, Norris has to perform at a very high level consistently, Brown added.
The odds don’t favor Norris at the moment, which is why McLaren remains more focused on the team’s overall goals. However, if the gap goes down, McLaren would be happy to reassess the situation, like Piastri suggested.
