Piastri would accept 'number two' role but Norris says he hasn't 'earned' priority yet

Oscar Piastri says he is prepared to play a ‘number two’ role to help his team mate win the world championship if McLaren request it.

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However Lando Norris says he hasn’t earned the right to ‘number one’ status at the team yet, despite being the closest threat to points leader Max Verstappen.

Norris gave up his chance to win the Hungarian Grand Prix last week when McLaren told him to let Piastri by in the final stint of the race. The pair swapped positions at the final round of pit stops as McLaren gave Norris priority to protect him from attacks from behind and Piastri was told the original running order would be reinstated.

However giving up the win cost Norris seven points to Verstappen, who enjoys a 76-point margin at the top of the standings. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said yesterday the team will discuss during the summer break whether they should prioritise Norris’ championship bid and require Piastri to support him.

Piastri acknowledged “that is a possibility” and said he is willing to comply if McLaren order him to back Norris up. “Of course I want to try and get myself up as high as I can but ultimately, I race for McLaren, and they have the ultimate say,” he said.

The two McLaren drivers are separated by 40 points in the championship. Piastri said he’s not out of contention yet.

“I’m going to try and make up as many points as I can,” he said. “Of course, we’re still very early in the season, I’m a long way behind in the drivers’ standings, but I’m also not out of it and it doesn’t take that many races to be in the same position that Lando’s in. So let’s see how it plays out.

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“If they need me to be a team player and try and help Lando, then of course I’ll do that. But I think the biggest thing is trying to score the most points of all the teams and win the constructors’. I think that’s definitely the biggest opportunity we have and we’ll see if there’s others as well.”

He believes it’s too early for McLaren to favour either driver in the championship. “We’re just over halfway through the season, there’s a long way to go and I think the decisions we made in Budapest showed that, in the team’s view, it’s important about, keeping the relationship strong, keeping building the team, and ultimately scoring as many points for the constructors as we can.

“Like I said, if Lando is in a position to win the championship and they ask me to help, then I will. But I think halfway through the season, with so many points still on offer, for myself as well, I think it’s still very early.”

However Norris also believes McLaren shouldn’t throw their efforts solely behind him yet. “I still need to earn it,” he said. “I still need to go out there and drive quicker than everyone.”

He said the situation which unfolded in Hungary shouldn’t lead the team to reconsider its approach to the championships.

“I don’t know why is now the point, all of a sudden, where you would have a bias over one? We’ve never had a bias in the team. It might have looked like it from the outside, that happens a lot now.”

“I’ve had the chance the whole season,” he added. “We’re only halfway through and we’ve got a hell of a long way to go. So maybe a little bit further down the line but that time is to be decided.”

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7 comments on “Piastri would accept ‘number two’ role but Norris says he hasn’t ‘earned’ priority yet”

cdfemke (@cdfemke)
27th July 2024, 12:56

“Not having priority”, or “throwing WDC points away ” by using team orders against the driver that is in a team leading position in the WDC are 2 different things.

Fiest is admireble. Other is plain stupidity.

Imagine loosing the WDC in the end with 5 points difference. Imagine being the one who made that call to issue the team order… wew.
1. Esploratore (@esploratore1)
  28th July 2024, 2:22
  
  That was a team order in the interest of fairness, so I respect that; if you lose the wdc by 5 points I’m sure you can look at other issues, such as the quality of norris’ starts.
Jonathan Parkin
27th July 2024, 13:04

From what I understand from a previous thread, either Lando or Oscar can still win the title but it would require something extraordinary to happen with Max for it to happen.

Since that probably won’t happen (although it has to be said, F1 can be unpredictable at times), the best decision would be to just concentrate on the WCC
Edvaldo
27th July 2024, 13:35

Its too early and Max is too far.

If it happens to max DNF and norris win at the same event, then they should start talking about it.

With a steady 70+ points gap, no reason to do that.

If mclaren wanted to challenge a team like Red Bull for the WDC they should have started the season strong, not give Max a head start of 5 races like they did.
1. Esploratore (@esploratore1)
  28th July 2024, 2:24
  
  Well, it can be done even without DNF, mclaren just needs to have the clear best car (like in hungary) for the rest of the season and norris needs to be able to stay ahead of verstappen: 10 points gained per race are plenty.
Nick T.
27th July 2024, 16:29

Lando’s fury over one win he believes he deserved or the points and semi-attacking Oscar’s status in public despite the fact that Hungary wasn’t up to Oscar (he didn’t elect to pit later and he also wasn’t screaming “Norris needs to give me the place!”) and how many times he has helped him seems quite petty and short-sighted. He should be making these arguments in private to the team and/or hashing it out with Oscar.

Oscar has not earned being prioritized but he also hasn’t been. Neither has Lando earned it though. It hasn’t just been the team choking. Lando has too. So, OK, prioritize Lando within reason if McLaren really believe he can catch up to Max. If they don’t think that’s realistic, they should tell him that.
1. Nick T.
  27th July 2024, 16:38
  
  Sorry, I totally misread the statement the first time around and negates my view that Lando is not handling the situation right.
  
  @keith – delete these two comments if you happen to see this