Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has told McLaren that the “trick” to keeping Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris under control will be to “establish the rules.”

Wolff’s verdict comes after a major checkpoint in the title battle between the McLaren drivers arrived in Canada, after Norris collided with Piastri and eliminated himself from the race in the closing stages.

Clear McLaren ‘rules’ the ‘trick’ to managing Norris and Piastri?

Norris was looking to find a gap down the inside of Piastri along the main straight as the McLarens battled over P4, but it was a gap which never opened, Norris clipping Piastri’s rear wheel in a touch which send him slamming into and skidding along the outside of the pit wall.

Norris immediately held his hands up, taking full responsibility for the incident, one which could carry major implications for his hopes of a first Drivers’ Championship, with Piastri able to carry on and finish P4 behind the Safety Car, increasing his lead over Norris to 22 points.

One F1 team boss who is very accustomed to managing a pair of team-mates fighting for the title is Toto Wolff, having experienced the successful, yet volatile pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes.

Asked how one goes about managing such a scenario between two battling, title-chasing team-mates, Wolff said: “Well, I’ve seen the movie, and I was right in there as a cast [member].

“It’s difficult, because it’s what drivers are calibrated to, in condition to do all their life: win championships. And particularly when you come into Formula 1.

“I think the trick is here to establish the rules. Establish how do we want to go about it?

“It obviously increases the complexity if the Constructors’ Championship is in your hands too. You could always argue with, ‘We need to win the Constructors’ Championship. We need to score these points.’ But in their case, they’re so far ahead that it’s not even a question whether they will win that. So certainly a tricky situation.”

Any potential for tension between Norris and Piastri was quickly snuffed out by Norris’ rapid reaction to shoulder all the blame.

And Wolff pointed out that this McLaren pairing does not create the same dynamic as seen with Hamilton and Rosberg, who went from friends to bitter rivals with conflict at every turn.

“The characters are very different than they were with us,” Wolff continued, “and it’s about strong management, to learn that.

“But we were learning, on the learning by doing, and I’m sure that these guys will get on top of that.”

McLaren has long since referred to its ‘papaya rules’ of engagement which Norris admitted he broke in Canada by crashing into his team-mate.

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Speaking to the media following the Canadian Grand Prix, Norris said: “Our rule number one is to not make contact with your team-mate, that’s what I did.

“McLaren is my family. I race for them. Every single weekend I try and do well for them, more than I often try and do well for myself.

“So when I let them down like this, and when I make a fool of myself in a moment like today, I have a lot of regret in something like that.

“I’m not proud of that, and I feel bad, and I feel like I let down my team, and that’s for me always the worst feeling. So of course, I only really need to apologise to all of them and Oscar as well.”

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