Lando Norris is 31 points behind Oscar Piastri in a tight Formula 1 title fight and McLaren have done themselves no favours with how they handled things at Monza last Sunday
McLaren haven’t had anyone making life hard for them this season – but now they’ve done it for themselves. Because what was previously a remarkably easy-to-manage title fight between their two drivers has become a minefield.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have bucked the Formula 1 trend and remained friendly as title challengers with only each other to beat. Their co-operation was on show at Monza last Sunday when Piastri, after a brief grumble on the radio, was entirely happy to let Norris pass and finish second ahead of him.
An order given by McLaren after a slow pit stop had dropped the Brit behind his title rival. If they drove for different teams, Norris would have finished behind Piastri and it would have been chalked up to bad luck.
But they don’t and now Piastri heads to Baku next weekend with a 31-point championship lead instead of being 37 ahead. It’s been tight all year and this could realistically decide which one of the McLaren pair becomes World champion for the first time. All because of a team order which just didn’t need to be made.
Norris is experienced enough to know that luck sometimes just doesn’t go your way, like at Zandvoort a week earlier when his engine failed. He would surely have had no lasting complaints had he crossed the line third last Sunday.
Nor would the team, who would have scored the exact same number of points and who are 337 clear of Ferrari. McLaren can win the constructors’ title as early as next weekend and are at the stage where they can let their drivers decide the individual honours among themselves.
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But no – team principal Andrea Stella continues to bend over backwards in his relentless pursuit of “fairness”. The Italian has worked wonders at McLaren, turning them from a mediocre midfield outfit into F1’s all-conquering force this year. But he’s dropped a clanger here, driving himself into a corner for the rest of the year.
Because where is the line drawn when it comes to fairness? A million things can happen in an F1 race – how does Stella decide when and when not to intervene? And, most crucially of all, when will the drivers start to not listen?
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Piastri could afford to swallow the six-point swing on this occasion, in return for the team’s gratitude. But what if they’re running first and second next time, and the difference is 14 points? Will the disadvantaged driver be so acquiescent then? It’s all hypothetical, but that’s the point – there’s no telling what situations will arise over the next eight race weekends.
McLaren have now set themselves a precedent which, as Toto Wolff said afterwards, will be “very difficult to undo”. It’s the first intra-team title battle since 2016 when Lewis Hamilton, battling Nico Rosberg, ignored Mercedes orders on more than one occasion. And surely, especially as the teams’ title is virtually secured, Norris and Piastri will be more and more out for themselves the closer they get to Abu Dhabi.
