With the “wrong guy on pole” for the Sprint race, Oscar Piastri has suggested that he might let Lando Norris pass if he is in front, as his teammate needs the points more.
Norris is in a title battle with Max Verstappen, with just 47 points separating them and a total of 120 points still available. Oscar Piastri: Lando needs the points a lot more than I do.
Eight points are up for grabs in Saturday’s Sprint at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
However, as Damon Hill pointed out, McLaren has the wrong driver on pole because Piastri beat Norris for the top spot by just 0.026 seconds on Friday. “They have absolutely nailed it,” Hill told Sky F1 after McLaren’s Sprint 1-2 finish.
“McLaren now has a problem because they’ve got two cars in a tricky situation with kind of the wrong guy on pole. We’re going to have to see what happens in the Sprint.”
Although the Australian would like to win the Sprint himself, he acknowledges that there’s more on the line for his teammate if they are racing together with Norris behind him.
“We’ll see what the pace is like for both of us. I think first and second is the first objective and then we’ll see what order it is,” Piastri said.
“I know that I’m not in the running for the Drivers’ standings, for the team it doesn’t matter which way round we are, so I know that’s the case and we’ll see.”
When asked if he would let his teammate win, he responded: “Yes, I’ve said I would from when we first had these discussions. It would be nice to win, but it’s one point different and it’s not the main race, so we’ll see.
“Lando needs the points in the Drivers’ standings a lot more than I do, but of course I still want to win. If I put in the effort and show good pace I’m sure that won’t go unnoticed, but we’ll see.”
McLaren ‘are going to support’ Lando Norris. The possibility of team orders at McLaren was a major topic earlier in the season when Norris started to close the gap to Verstappen in the standings.
Piastri’s win in Hungary, where McLaren asked Norris to give him back first place after Norris undercut Piastri during the pit stop, along with Piastri’s challenge to Norris at the start of the Italian Grand Prix, led to discussions about ‘papaya rules.’
That conversation has quieted in recent weeks with Norris finishing ahead of Piastri in the last three races.
But with Piastri starting ahead of Norris in Saturday’s Sprint, team boss Andrea Stella was asked about the status of team orders.
“In terms of this topic, the situation hasn’t actually changed very much compared to some comments that we made,” he replied.
“Lando is the driver that is in contention for the Drivers’ Championship, so it’s natural that we are going to support Lando. We have always said that we would do that in the spirit of our principles, which lean on integrity, sportsmanship, and fairness to both drivers, and that’s what we are trying to do.”
“You will have seen that in both Austin and Mexico, for example, Lando had some upgraded parts that were not available for both cars, so we gave them to Lando. This is a way of supporting the driver who is competing for the championship.
“At the same time, as part of our approach, we have pretty much daily conversations with both drivers because we want to make sure that if any actions are needed during a competitive session, this comes with the agreement from both parties. We consider the season, but we also look at the future.”
