McLaren driver Lando Norris says team-mate Oscar Piastri won’t have to give up Formula 1 race wins to support his title bid.
McLaren has come out backing Norris as he aims to overturn Max Verstappen’s 62-point lead in the drivers’ championship, with Red Bull’s downturn in form offering the Briton a realistic chance of snatching the world title away from the Dutchman over the remaining eight races.
But McLaren had thus far been keen to support both drivers equally and give Piastri a fair chance to race Norris, which led to the Australian taking the lead away from Norris with an audacious pass on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix.
As a result of that overtake, Norris dropped to third behind eventual winner Charles Leclerc. That has given McLaren second thoughts about leaving its so-called ‘Papaya rules’ in place and letting its drivers free to race each other.
The team later also allowed Piastri to stay ahead of Norris as they finished second and third in Monza.
McLaren confirmed on Thursday morning in Baku that it would throw its weight behind Norris from now on if a similar situation occurred, but according to Norris that doesn’t mean Piastri would have to give up race wins.
When asked if he was expecting Piastri to wave him past for the lead of the race, he replied: “No.
“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.”
Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
With 62 points to make up on Verstappen, Norris admitted that only getting priority for lower positions could end up costing him the title by the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi, but he insisted he wants to win the world championship on merit and not at all costs.
“I’m sure it will hurt, but I’m also here to race,” he said when asked how he would feel if he were to miss out by a few points.
“And if a driver is doing better than me and performing, I need to do a better job, so I wouldn’t want to take that away from someone.
“I also don’t want to be given a championship. Yes, it would be great to have a championship, and on the short term you feel amazing, but I don’t think you’d be proud of that in the long run.
“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.”
Norris explained that McLaren has also tidied up its ‘papaya rules’ after Piastri’s aggressive pass, which ended up opening the door to Leclerc to lay the foundations for a Ferrari home win, but insisted he and Piastri are still free to battle at the start of a race.
“I think there will be certain times when it’s just not smart to battle, but if you go into a lap one and that’s on your mind, that’s the wrong approach,” he explained.
“I think you both have to go into lap one with the right approach, which is to attack it, to try and go forward. As soon as soon as you start thinking about other things that’s normally when it starts to go wrong.
“Monza was a slightly different case. We’ve looked back at that and we’ve resolved that. The main thing is we came out of Turn 4 in first and third, and we had the biggest gap in the world going into the corner.
“It was not ideal in my world, but also for us as a team, that’s not how we should have gone racing there. So, I think clearer instructions of how we can race each other and how much we can risk with one another.”
Norris, who said he was “thankful” to receive the team’s backing, added: “Oscar is still fighting for his own racing, he’s still going out and 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 not like he’s still going out with that intent in every session. He’s just fighting for himself and going to do his job.”
Watch: Has McLaren Picked Lando as it’s #1 F1 Driver? – Azerbaijan GP Preview
