McLaren Reveals Difficulties With Team Orders In Lando Norris's Championship Fight

Saajan Jogia | Sep 2, 2024

Nov 17, 2023; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; McLaren F1 drivers Lando Norris (4) of Great Britain and Oscar Piastri (81) of Australia drive during practice 3 at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports / Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has confirmed that team orders will come into play during the next eight Grands Prix to support the driver in the "best position." The decision comes after McLaren's spectacular pace in recent races that led Lando Norris to close a considerable gap to Max Verstappen in the Drivers' Standings.

The race at Monza saw Oscar Piastri grab the lead from his teammate Norris, who started in pole position. The tussle led Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to take advantage and slice his SF-24 in between the two MCL38s, causing Norris to drop down to third.

Eventually, Leclerc won the Italian Grand Prix, while Piastri and Norris finished second and third. The podium finish has brought the Papaya outfit considerably closer to the championship fight with Red Bull, especially since the Milton Keynes outfit has been struggling to solve a balance problem on its title contender, the RB20. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez finished sixth and eighth, in the same order.

Norris trails Verstappen by 62 points, and McLaren is aware of the support he needs to win the championship. Referencing Verstappen's recent statements that his chances of winning the championship are not "realistic," Stella told the media:

“Max is good, even with his tongue. He’s not only good on track.

“Obviously he knows that the car he is driving at the moment seems to provide him with some challenges.

“But we need to be better at capitalizing the opportunities that Red Bull at the moment seem to offer by not being in the usual possibility of competing for podiums.”

Hinting at the Italian GP's first lap, Stella said that the team could have handled the situation better. He also emphasized helping the driver in the best position to challenge Verstappen, which is Norris at the moment. He said:

“We are fighting Max Verstappen, so I think if we want to give support to one driver, we definitely have to pick the one that is in the best position.

“And also Lando, he's been doing very well, like pole position in Zandvoort, pole position here [in Monza].

“If anything with Lando, we need to adjust some little racing things which may help him, and may help us capitalize on a pole position like we had here in Monza. I think if you look at his first lap, while we review it together, we might see that there were a couple of things that we could have done slightly better.”

However, in the quest to help the "number one" driver in the team, Stella revealed that the number one status is situation-based and does not solely apply to Norris. He clarified:

“I think number one kind of works well as a headline, but I'm not sure it works very well in the real world in terms of what does it mean? What do you do?

“Let's say hypothetically that we conclude that in corner four [the second chicane], Lando just braked too early, and Oscar kind of naturally had the possibility to take the lead, then what does it mean if you are number one? You swap the lap after?

“It's just very difficult to implement this definition in the real world. It's better to keep working as a team, get the opinion of both drivers and then work together to pursue this objective in both championships, because it now looks like the drivers' championship is definitely a possibility.

“We were a little cautious even before Monza, but I now we see that McLaren can compete in circuits where last year we were not competitive.

“So I think it's a very competitive package overall, and this could be a very important weapon for Lando in particular in the quest for the championship.”

The team principal also made it clear that McLaren was not keen on Piastri and Norris swapping positions at the closing stages of the race in Monza because it was important to put pressure on Leclerc. He added:

“We considered other ways during the race to make sure that Lando had his own opportunities.

“But we didn't consider the swap because we were still willing to put as much pressure as possible on Leclerc and eventually induce him to have a problem with the front left, like a lock-up, in one of the chicanes.”