In the past few weeks, the McLaren F1 Team has come under a lot of scrutiny for not making the hard decisions during the race. So far, the team has not prioritized any one driver over the other. While this may sound fair, it is costing the team and Lando Norris points that they desperately need in this Championship fight. But now, the team has decided to start imposing team orders.
After the 2024 Italian Grand Prix, there are only 8 more races left this season. Lando is sitting in 2nd place in the Championship table, 62 points behind Verstappen. Oscar on the other hand is still 106 points behind the Dutch driver. It is quite obvious what McLaren has to do now.
McLaren to prioritize Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri
Ideally, McLaren should have done this before. If they had done so, Lando would have probably won the race in Monza and Hungary which would have closed the gap to Verstappen to under 50 points. But better late than never.
On the Thursday before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella stated that the team would start to impose team orders to help Lando catch up to Max in the Championship.
“We [will] bias our support to Lando but we want to do it without too much compromise on our principles,” team principal Andrea Stella said.
“Our principles are that the team’s interest always comes first. We want to be fair to both drivers.
“What we don’t want to see anymore is a situation like in Monza in which we enter a chicane P1/P2 and we exit P1/P3 because that is a detriment to the team.”
🚨 | McLaren has signalled it is preparing to impose team orders on Oscar Piastri to aid Lando Norris’s F1 title bid.
“We [will] bias our support to Lando but we want to do it without too much compromise on our principles,” team principal Andrea Stella said.
“Our principles… pic.twitter.com/0KNUceQ8eY
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) September 12, 2024
“[…] The conversations [with Oscar] have been very collaborative.”
“Even when I said to Oscar: ‘Would you be available to give up a victory?’ He said: ‘It’s painful, but if it’s the right thing to do now, I will do it’.
“Every driver is hard-wired to go for a victory. So I am very impressed by the level of team spirit and maturity and collaboration that we found in this period.”
There is no doubt that Oscar Piastri is a talented young driver who will most likely fight for the Championship in the future. But just not this year. Although the title is still mathematically possible for the Australian driver, it is not practical. Hence, he has agreed to help Lando win the Championship.
This brings us to the next question.
Can Lando Norris catch up to Max Verstappen in 8 races?
Eight races to go and 62 points to make up for. This is a big ask from the team. There is no doubt here that Max has the advantage with the lead. However, the car has not been the best in the past few races. Verstappen’s last race win came at the Spanish GP which was 7 races ago. So the momentum is with McLaren and Lando Norris.
Given the point difference, Lando will have to close in on Max at a rate of 7.75 points per race weekend. The difference between points for 1st and 2nd place is 7 points. So even if Lando is able to win every race, he will need Verstappen to finish lower than 2nd in a few of the races if he hopes to win the Championship.
Ready for Round 17 in Azerbaijan. 🧡#AzerbaijanGP🇦🇿 pic.twitter.com/UJdM0PTxZV
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) September 12, 2024
Red Bull advisor, Helmut Marko has stated that Red Bull is at a low point now but is expecting to bring upgrades in Austin. From then on, there is a possibility that Red Bull will find their pace again.
So Lando should now focus on the next two weekends to score as many points as possible. This weekend is Azerbaijan and the next is Singapore – both street races. If Lando is able to close the gap to Max to about 40 points, then the Drivers’ Championship is still wide open.
It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens in these next 2 races. Do you think Lando Norris can win the Championship this year? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.
