by VALERIO BARRETTA
McLaren changes gear
From the free to race to the reasoning in the classification perspective. The McLaren has done the math and has come to the conclusion that such a golden opportunity cannot be wasted by allowing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to take away precious points. From the Baku weekend onwards, the Woking team will give more support to the British driver, who is 62 points behind Max Verstappen in the World Championship and has the car and talent to get even closer in the upcoming events.
On the other side of the pits, Piastri is not taking too much of a sting in his stomach. The Australian knows well that Norris is in a much better position for the title and has already given ample proof of his skill and cunning even towards his teammate: in fact, he has agreed to lend a hand, while underlining that within the McLaren team orders there is a degree of “freedom” (also explained by Andrea Stella) that will not allow Norris to overtake him in any condition.
Piastri’s words
“The team asked me to help out and in the last few races I said that if they had asked me I would have done it.. As a driver, it’s never an easy thing to accept, but the picture is much bigger. I continue to race to try to get the best possible results for myself and for the team. But I know that, if there are ways to help Lando get points, I will help him.“, these are the words of Piastri. “With the current setup, I think the first lap of Monza would have gone differently: for the team, leaving the Roggia in first and third position was certainly not ideal. For me, however, it allowed me to be in a winning position and besides I did not break any pact, because we were free to race against each other: we did not arrive second and third because of this maneuver, but because of a bold strategy by Ferrari. Some things will be different from now on, but first we’ll see what racing circumstances we’ll be in.“.
But, it was said, in this new “pact” Norris will have to earn help: “What would happen if I was ten seconds ahead of Lando? We still need to talk about this a little bit more. It is very important for the whole team to avoid this scenario if possible. And after speaking to Lando and Andrea, I know that no one wants the race to be decided by this, including Lando. It will be up to the team but it is not certain that I will give up the race, regardless of the circumstances.. There is still a certain amount of movement and flexibility, because in the end we all agree that, as a team, if someone has done a clearly better job on the weekend, they deserve to be rewarded.“.
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