McLaren explain how team orders are designed to avoid Lando Norris vs Oscar Piastri drama
McLaren have skyrocketed towards the front of the F1 grid in recent months, behꦏind only Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Piastri and Norris finished on the podium at the F1 Qatar Grand Prix, a day a꧒fter the rookie won 🌜the sprint race.
Team principal Stella told Sky about their thought process with Piastri ahead of Norris towards the end of the grand prix: “After we consolidated the positions at the last stop, we told the drivers to hold position and bring the tw♉o cars home. Stay away from the kerbs, avoid track limits, keep it simple.”
But teammate vs teammate issues are inevitable within Formula 1, and Norris bemoaned a “lack of talent” for his frustrating we꧅ekend as Piastri won the sprint, a ꦡmajor milestone in the career of a future star.
Stella explained how they avoid a fall-out: “We do pr♛epare the objectives. We remind [ourseཧlves of] our racing principles all the time, in preparation for an event and before the race.
“We don’t talk about Aston,🌱 we just talk about doing a good job. And we do a good job if we stick with our racing principles. One of the principle🐭s is that the team comes first, we are fair.”
What if a driver disagrees with the team orders?
“We alꦺways, as part of our principles, tell the drivers: ‘When we give you an instruction, come back to us, because we want to be 100% sure that we understand your ༺position. But if we come back to you, stick with it!’”
Piastri had a far more impressive Qatar Grand Prix than Norris, a fascinating dynamic because the A😼ustralian is a rookie alongside an established talent who is frequently tipped as a future champion.
Stelജla stuck up for Norris: “In fairness, we need to distinguish between [the fact that] Oscar qualified ahead and was ahead in the race, and the outright pace.
“Lando was quite quick but struggled to put it all together. In Q3 he was twice 20.0 which would’ve been P2, but it got deleted because of track limits. There are positives, progress from both sides of the garage. At Suzuka w🐭e talked about Oscar improving his race pace - look at his race pace today. We remind ourselves what we’re here for - take McLaren to where we belong. Then we think about internal competition.”
Stella stressed the importance of avoiding an intra-team dispute before it happ🍨ens.
“I can say, we think about it not only in the future, but all the time we go racing. In the weekend and before the race. We are very realistic. These guys drive since they were kids and have objectives to win. We know their personalities, we know very well. We need to manage it very well so that it stays instrumental for the team, and doesn’t become a problem for the team. At the moment we🐻’re in a good positions and we need to stick there.”
The McLaren boss detailed his team’s weekend: “That was, if anything, even better than Suzuka because it came 🔯from a difficult starting position. A very good feeling. An even better feeling is thinking about the team at the factory who made this possible.
“Mercedes were quick. Had they not had a problem at the start, I think it would’ve been a problem for us. I acknowledge Merce✨des were quick.”
McLaren, at this rate, could begin 2024 as Red Bull’s nearest cꦉhallengers.
“So far we’ജre encouraged🐎 by what we see,” Stella said about their development.
“The good work from the aerodyna🦂mic team, the team in design, to develop the car seems like it’s perpetuating. You always have to be very careful until you put the car on the ground.”
James was a sports journalist at Skyไ Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
