Lando Norris has admitted he never wants to be in the situation currently facing the Briton at McLaren involving teammate Oscar Piastri while fighting for a drivers’ title.
The 24-year-old stands an outside chance of dethroning his friend, Max Verstappen, for this season’s championship with eight rounds remaining. Norris is currently 62 points shy of the Red Bull driver at the peak of the standings with a maximum of 208 points still up for grabs.
Norris must outscore Verstappen by 7.75 points per race on average if the McLaren ace is to win F1’s drivers’ title this term. It is a challenge that the Bristol-born racer has risen to in the past two rounds, having outscored his rival by eight points at Zandvoort and again at Monza.
Lando Norris would ‘love’ team orders but hates that the McLaren driver needs it
But further points were left on the table after Norris failed to win the Italian Grand Prix from pole position. He had to settle for third place after Piastri stunned Norris to the lead into the Variante della Roggia chicane, which opened a route for Charles Leclerc to also make a pass.
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Leclerc stealing P2 on the first lap put Ferrari in a position to try the one-stop strategy which ultimately won him the Italian GP. But McLaren could have potentially avoided it had Piastri not passed Norris and compromised the papaya team’s efforts to dictate the race at Monza.
If team orders were in play at Monza, then Norris could have won the Italian GP and taken a huge chunk into Verstappen’s points lead. The Red Bull driver had to settle for a distant sixth place. So, Norris admits he would now ‘love’ McLaren to order Piastri to support his title bid.
“I would love it but it’s not up to me,” he said, via Speedcafe. “It’s tough because, obviously, I think as any driver, you don’t want it. You don’t want things to just be played that way.”
McLaren must decide on team orders before Oscar Piastri makes it impossible
Norris’ mixed feelings regarding McLaren employing team orders to have Piastri play No2 as the Briton battles Verstappen for the drivers’ title will become much clearer if the Australian continues to beat his teammate. Piastri is also only 44 points behind Norris in the standings.
If Piastri beats Norris in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix next time out or the Singapore Grand Prix after that, then McLaren might have to accept their chance to issue team orders has passed. The Woking crew may find it impossible to say Piastri is not also in the title fight with Norris.
McLaren would further rue failing to issue team orders swiftly enough if Verstappen and Red Bull are uncompetitive in Baku and Singapore like at Monza. The Dutchman could only claim seventh in qualifying with a 0.695-second gap to Norris at Monza and finished 31.779s back.
