Piastri has said he’ll help Norris if asked to do so
Lando Norris is “thankful” for a call by McLaren on team orders that will see Oscar Piastri support his title campaign if it is necessary to ask the Australian to help.
The decision was made after internal discussions at McLaren since the Italian GP, where Piastri passed Norris on the first lap and put him in a position where he then lost second place to Charles Leclerc.
Team boss Andrea Stella says that the Monza move was detrimental to the overall situation of the team, and he wants to avoid a repeat.
Piastri has also said he’s willing to mover over if he’s asked to do so, although Norris is coy about accepting such help.
“I mean, good, thankful,” said Norris when asked about the call. “How do I say it? I mean, he’s still fighting for his own racing.
“He’s still going out and doing the doing his stuff. And it could be that there’s no time this year that he needs to help me.
“It’s more that I’ve got Oscar’s help when needs be. But he’s still going out with the intent of every session of fighting for himself and going to do his job.”
Norris insisted that he doesn’t want Piastri to have to hand over a race victory: “No. Probably for lower positions. But if he’s fought for a win and he’s deserving of a win, then he deserves to win.”
He said that he doesn’t want a win the championship based on help from Piastri, and that if a decision in his team mate’s favour means he loses at the final round, he will have to deal with it.
“I’m sure it will hurt,” he said. “But I’m also here to race, and if a driver is doing better than me, and outperforming, he’s just doing a better job. So I wouldn’t want to take that away from someone. And I also don’t want to be given a championship.
“Yes, it would be great to have a championship, and short term, you’d feel amazing, but I don’t think you’d be proud of that in the long run. And that’s not something I want.
“That’s not how I want to win a championship. I want to win it by fighting against Max, by beating Max, beating my competitors, and proving that I’m the best on track. And that’s how I want to win.”
Adam Cooper F1 