McLaren has faced immense criticism over the past three months for not being firm with their team dynamics. A messy situation in Hungary kickstarted this debate. Since Lando Norris is the team’s best bet to catch up with championship leader Max Verstappen in the standings, many experts questioned their decision not to favor him. However, Oscar Piastri’s top-class performances and consistency have justified why McLaren were reluctant in the first place to implement team orders.
On ESPN’s Unlapped podcast, F1 expert Nate Saunders used Piastri’s Azerbaijan GP win as an example to highlight why the Woking outfit considers him an equal to Norris. He said,
“In hindsight, you can understand why McLaren have been a bit reluctant to immediately enforce some kind of team orders and say to Piastri before Monza, ‘Hey you are now second fiddle to Norris’.”
“Because that kind of weekend could happen. It’s not a guarantee Norris is gonna have clean weekends all the way through”, he added. Saunders also explained that there may be an intrinsic realization at McLaren about Piastri‘s caliber and long-term potential.
He labeled the Aussie a “complete superstar” while deeming his Baku heroics as “unbelievable”. On a weekend when McLaren’s championship challenger Norris was knocked out in Q1, Piastri capitalized to maximize the result for the team.
Moreover, the 23-year-old has shown time and again that his pace is very much at par with his teammate. So, McLaren cannot really make him a number two driver to Norris. As for the #4 driver, he did well in Azerbaijan to recover from his Q1 exit and eventually get a P4 result to boost his title hopes.
On top of that, he also helped Piastri’s cause for the win by holding up Sergio Perez during the pitstop phase. This helped the Aussie immensely to come out in clean air and go on to win the Grand Prix. But Norris’ championship challenge doesn’t seem to be going to plan.
How Norris is running out of time in the 2024 title battle
Since the Canadian GP this season, Norris has arisen as a championship contender to Verstappen. However, his performances haven’t lived up to the dominant Dutchman’s standards. The Briton has left multiple race wins on the table and could have made significant inroads in Verstappen’s championship lead by now.
In Baku, he was consistently talking about the unlucky yellow flag that caused his Q1 exit. While that certainly was a big factor, Norris and McLaren failed to anticipate such an occurrence at a chaotic track like Baku and ended up leaving their flying run for the final minutes in Q1.
Tale as old as time on a street circuit…
Yellow flags hampered Lando Norris’ final run in Q1 and left the McLaren watching from the sidelines #F1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/0uCYjVPhv6
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 14, 2024
Norris only needed to get through to Q2 and safeguard his prospects to get pole later. Had he been at the front of the field like Piastri, the #4 driver had a golden chance to reduce Verstappen’s lead, given the Dutchman could only finish fifth.
Currently, the #4 driver is still 59 points behind the Dutchman with Charles Leclerc and Piastri closer to him than he is to Verstappen. At this rate, even Leclerc could have similar chances of winning the championship with seven races left.
