Team principal Andrea Stella says McLaren will continue to review the arrangement between their drivers after Oscar Piastri underlined his talent with a thrilling Azerbaijan Grand Prix victory.
McLaren came into the weekend fielding questions over team orders after Piastri’s opportunistic first-lap move in Monza a fortnight ago resulted in title-chasing Lando Norris losing two positions.
They decided the team would favour Norris for the remainder of the season but it was Piastri on the top step of the podium in Baku as the British driver finished fourth, having started from 15th after a disaster in qualifying.
Piastri’s second F1 win, brilliantly secured over Charles Leclerc thanks to a daring overtake and dogged defence, actually came in part thanks to Norris working to help his team-mate stay ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez during the pit-stop phase.
Stella is aware of the headache that having two such talented drivers can cause but stressed that the position of favouring Norris is not a hard and fast rule.
“We have two number one drivers effectively and that means that we approach things first of all in the interests of the team,” Stella said.
“The interest of the team is to win the constructors’ championship and to win also the drivers’ championship.
“Lando was in the most favourable position before this race and still is.
“I think we have evidence today that actually, interestingly it was Lando supporting Oscar.
“The race could have unfolded in a completely different way, 50 per cent of Oscar’s victory today is shared with Lando.
“We always intended to review after every race with each driver together what was going to be the best approach for the next races, we will do it and set the plan for Singapore.
“I think we lead by principles. That leaves you space to assess every situation. When you have defined rules they become defining.”
Norris managed to cut the gap on leader Verstappen by three points to 59 despite starting the race nine places behind, pulling off a superb strategy before catching and passing the three-time world champion.
Piastri is fourth, a further 32 points back on Norris ahead of next weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, and Stella lauded his drivers’ displays in Baku.
“When I saw Piastri going for it (the overtake), my instinct was that he was going to go long (into the run-off area),” Stella added.
“The talent, the precision in the execution from Oscar made the difference.
“I was surprised but Oscar is always surprising us with his talent and his ability.
“I can’t see any point during the 51 laps where Lando could have done a better job today.
“Personally while I am always optimistic, a mission that would have led us to be fourth was a little too optimistic.”
For the team it was a landmark day as they moved ahead of Red Bull, who have dominated the sport for the last two seasons, to the top of the constructors’ championship for the first time since 2014.
“We don’t have to forget that at the start of 2023 we were last and now we lead,” Stella added. “That is a huge milestone.
“But we don’t look at the standings, we just focus on executing at every single event.
“The car is not yet fast enough to create boring races. That is not in the interests of F1 but is the way in which we want to go racing.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here