Lando Norris has said that while McLaren is now prioritising him and his championship aspirations, he will not expect teammate Oscar Piastri to move over and give up race wins on his behalf.
McLaren got itself caught in a controversy about team orders at the Italian Grand Prix when Piastri aggressively passed his teammate on the opening lap, allowing eventual winner Charles Leclerc to pass Norris in the process.
Norris is 62 points behind championship leader Max Verstappen but McLaren’s car is now clearly the quickest, while Red Bull are struggling, leading many in the paddock to think the British driver can challenge for the title over the remaining eight races.
Ahead of this week’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where McLaren are strong favourites, team boss Andrea Stella said Norris will now have priority.
When asked if Piastri will wave him through if he’s leading a one-two on Sunday, Norris said: “No, probably not.”
Norris said that it isn’t simply a case of Piastri letting him overtake his teammate at every opportunity.
“In general, 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’s still fighting for his own racing and going out and doing his own stuff. It could be there’s no time this year he needs to help me. It’s more that I’ve got Oscar’s help when needs be, but he’s not… But he’s still going out with the intent every session, just fighting for himself and going to do his job.”
Norris suggested too much has been made of the Monza race in the media.
“There’s been plenty of things we’ve done through the last few years where he’s helped me and I’ve helped him, and we’ve already done decisions, but it’s just not been public. So I mean, people can always say what they want, and come up with what they want, but we know how we work. We have good guidelines and a good structure that we work to, but that’s their opinion, and they can think what they want.”
The situation still does not appear to be clear cut, something Piastri himself alluded to in his media session immediately after Norris had spoken.
“It still needs some more discussion,” the Australian driver said. “I think the main point is it’s not just purely going to be me pulling over for Lando every single race because that’s how none of us, including Lando, wants to go racing. Trying to go through all the scenarios is impossible and of course we don’t want to discuss that publicly but the main one is if we feel someone has done a much better job over the course of a weekend, whichever way it is we want that person to be rewarded.
“That’s where of course it becomes tricky still and we need to continue discussing that. But it’s not simply a blanket ‘I’m going to be behind Lando in every single race and decision that’s taken from here on out’, because I still have things that I want to achieve in the championship and boost my standing in the championship.
“Of course, as a team we’re not winning the constructors’ championship so we need to make sure we win that, of course, so it’s very important we maintain that kind of respect in between.”