McLaren face the prospect of winning the Drivers’ Championship with either Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris based on the opening six rounds of the season.
The team has taken victories in five of the first six races, with Piastri leading the way with four wins to Norris’ single victory at the Australian Grand Prix.
Norris led the championship up until the Bahrain GP, when Piastri overtook him and extended his points lead to 16 points with a victory in Miami.
McLaren’s car has been the benchmark this season, with Red Bull set to introduce a ‘radical’ change to Max Verstappen’s car at Imola in a bid to catch them.
If Red Bull does catch up to them, McLaren face the prospect of having to make an important decision midway through the season, according to former F1 driver Mario Andretti when speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast.
Mario Andretti thinks McLaren need to use team orders midway through the season
McLaren have not ruled out using team orders with their drivers this season, given the threat of Norris and Piastri taking points off each other.
Andretti, who won the 1978 world championship, believes McLaren will need to impose team orders on their drivers midway through the season to preserve their title chances.
“When you have two capable winners in the same team, where do you go from there? Only one can win. We’ve seen that in 1973 [at Lotus] with Emerson Fittipaldi and Ronnie Peterson taking points away from each other and neither won the championship,” said Andretti.
“I think the only way to deal with that is you have to keep it open until mid-season, then whoever is leading points mid-season, that’s the one that is number one. Then the other one has to relinquish and help.
“It’s a wonderful place to be, but at the same time, there will be a critical decision to be made at some point. I wouldn’t want to be the one to make that decision.”
Red Bull banking on FIA flexi-wing clampdown
Red Bull are banking on the FIA’s clampdown on flexible front wings to impact McLaren, as new tests are set to come into force at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Milton Keynes outfit has grown suspicious of their brake cooling tactics lately, with Red Bull raising the issue with the FIA after spotting something on thermal imaging cameras.
Verstappen and Norris could be impacted by the clampdown on flexible front wings, as their driver style is dependent on that area of development.
Piastri has shown so far that he can race under pressure from both drivers, having pulled off an impressive move for the lead at the Miami GP on Verstappen.
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