F1 | McLaren opens to betting on Norris in the world championship chase

The first lap of Monza said a lot about McLaren, for many different reasons. Up until now, the Woking team has always been very open in saying that, although the drivers’ title was not a mirage, the goal was and would remain to support both of its standard-bearers, postponing any decisions until after the summer.

With eight more events before the end of the world championship, including three sprints, the opportunities to recover points are clearly becoming fewer and fewer, so it is time to maximize the points. On the eve of the Monza GP Oscar Piastri did not hide that, if the gap had remained this way, then he would have continued to race to win, but also that he would have been willing to help his teammate if the team had asked for it and the gap from the top had reduced.

Of course, it is always difficult to ask a driver to give up a fight or a win, but it is clear that, while it is right that Piastri fights for himself until he is told otherwise, on the other hand McLaren is aware that an internal fight could take points away from Norris. After the events of the first lap in Italy, McLaren gave the strongest indication yet that it is ready to fully support Lando Norris’ title bid, despite having so far been reluctant to introduce team orders.

With rivals Red Bull and Max Verstappen increasingly struggling, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes it is time for his team to ensure that Norris’s points-maximising opportunities are not wasted, not least because he does not want to underestimate his rivals. Speaking about Verstappen’s post-race comments that his title chances are no longer realistic due to the performance of the RB20 and what this means for McLaren, Stella said: “Max is good, also with words. He is not just good on the track.”

“Obviously he knows that the car he’s driving at the moment seems to be providing him with some serious challenges. But we need to be better at capitalising on the opportunities that Red Bull seems to be offering at the moment, not being in the usual position to compete for the podium.”

Stella explained that while both Norris and Piastri remain mathematically in contention for the championship, the team must be realistic that at this stage of the championship it might make sense to back just one driver to try and maximise their opportunities: “We are fighting against Max Verstappen, so I think if we want to back a driver, we need to go with the one who is in the best position,” he said.

“And also Lando, who is doing very well, like the pole position in Zandvoort, the pole position here in Monza. With Lando we need to possibly change some small race adjustments that can help him and that can help us capitalise on a pole position like the one in Monza. I think if you look at his first lap, as we review it together, we could see that there were a couple of things that we could have done slightly better.”

Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, celebrate with the team

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

However, while acknowledging that the team wants to “try to win the championship with Lando”, Stella believes that this will not lead to a situation where Norris is the absolute number one, especially given his past at Ferrari: “I think having a number one works well as a title, but I’m not sure it works very well in the real world? What do you do?”

“Let’s hypothetically suppose that we conclude that at turn four [la seconda chicane]Lando braked too early and Oscar had the chance to take the lead, then what does it mean to be number one? Do you swap the lap after?”, added the McLaren Team Principal, underlining how McLaren, even in Monza, did not think about team orders.

“It is very difficult to apply this definition of first driver in the real world. It is better to continue to work as a team, get the opinion of both drivers and then work together to pursue this goal in both championships, because now it seems that the drivers’ championship is definitely a possibility. We were a bit cautious even before Monza, but now we see that McLaren can compete at circuits where we were not competitive last year.”

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

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

Also for this reason, Stella confirmed that the idea of ​​swapping the position between Norris and Piastri during the Grand Prix, either halfway through the races or in the final stages, was not considered: “We didn’t consider it. We considered other ways during the race to make sure Lando had his opportunities”.

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