Locking out the front row of the grid, Andrea Stella says McLaren “trust” Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to put on a fair fight at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The McLaren team-mates go into Sunday’s race first and second on the grid, and in the championship.

Could McLaren’s trust be misplaced?

Piastri leads the Drivers’ Championship by a mere three points after Norris pulled back 13 points in the last two races.

The momentum swing between the team-mates has meant twice already this season McLaren have refused to issue team orders as they’re adamant they won’t back just one driver while both still have a shot at winning the World title.

Speaking to PlanetF1.com’s Mat Coch, McLaren CEO Zak Brown said: “When you’ve got two drivers first and second in the championship and are separated by less than one second place finish, how do you possibly even consider standing one down into a supporting role?

“There’s just no way we will.”

That’s a stance McLaren carry into Sunday’s 66-lap Spanish Grand Prix.

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Instead of issuing clear team orders to avoid an incident and ensure they take the win ahead of Max Verstappen, Stella says McLaren trust Piastri and Norris to put on a “fair” fight.

“We have our racing approach which is a process between Lando and Oscar that has been going on for months,” he told Sky F1.

“It’s based on principles but when it comes to racing against your team-mate, or any other car, you can’t be too prescriptive.

“We trust our drivers. This is the most important factor. We have great conversations constantly.

“I’m sure it will be an exciting, fair battle until the end of the championship.”

Stella has, however, made it clear to his drivers that the race will not be won on the run down to Turn 1 or even on Lap 1.

“Here is also one of the tracks with the longest run to Turn 1,” he told Viaplay. “So there’s quite a lot of work to do in terms of launch quality, defending the position in Turn 1.

“I think it’s going to be a long race, so not necessarily decided by the order at the end of lap one.”

Nico Rosberg has warned Stella that trusting the drivers to keep it clean could come back to haunt McLaren.

Having experienced team-mate tension during his years alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes where they went wheel-to-wheel for race wins and the World titles, Rosberg knows first-hand how difficult it is to dial back after an on-track explosion.

“You heard there are no rules of engagement,” said the 2016 World Champion. “They trust their drivers. They trust their drivers to follow the FIA rules of engagement.”

Asked if he thought that was a dangerous thing, he replied: “Of course!

“Even if you say maybe that okay it’s not going to influence too much a certain battle, but even then, in hindsight, it just helps you so much, because then as a team you can say, ‘Look, this is the rules we’ve agreed to very clearly in detail, and Oscar here you are at fault, or Lando.

“And you can then make it very clear afterwards, because otherwise it’s all this negative spiral that if you have ambiguity and grey areas, it just spirals out of control.

“You really want to avoid that at all costs, because it is not something you can reverse very easily when it happens.”

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