by Oscar Piastri insists conceding a race win to team-mate Lando Norris is “not set in stone” after McLaren insisted they would favour the British driver for the remainder of the F1 season.
Norris is 62 points behind Max Verstappen in the drivers’ standings but was thwarted by team-mate Piastri at the last race in Italy when the Australian overtook him on the first lap and also lost control of eventual winner Charles Leclerc. Norris was also forced to cede top spot to Piastri at the Hungarian Grand Prix in July.
But team principal Andrea Stella has since revealed that McLaren will now focus on helping Norris catch Verstappen with eight races remaining, although they are keen to do so “without compromising our principles too much… the interests of the team always come first”.
Asked about the situation ahead of this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the possibility of letting Norris relinquish top spot, Piastri said: “It’s something we still need to talk about a little bit more. For the whole team, we want to avoid that if we can.”
“I know after talking to Lando and Andrea, no one wants to see the race dictated by that. That includes Lando himself.
“With always a big gap [in the championship]Ultimately it’s up to the team to decide if that’s what we want to do and if the call comes, that’s what I’ll do.
“But it’s not set in stone that I’ll walk away from racing, no matter what the circumstances. There’s still a certain degree of freedom and flexibility because, at the end of the day, we all agree as a team that if someone has done a clearly better job this weekend, that still deserves to be rewarded.”
“If it’s Lando, then obviously, given my position as champion, I wouldn’t do that. If it was like that, if my teammate beat me by 10 seconds, I wouldn’t expect that in return. I think we’re all very much in agreement on that and ultimately it’s going to be the team’s decision.”
Stella said McLaren would show “partial support” for Norris, who is targeting an unlikely return to the standings to win his first F1 world title.
“The general concept is that we are incredibly determined to win, but we want to win the right way,” he said in an interview with the BBC. “We [will] We support Lando but we want to do so without compromising too much on our principles.
“Our principles are that the team’s interest always comes first. Sportsmanship is important to us in the way we approach the race. And we want to be fair to both drivers.”
Norris meanwhile admitted the new approach would make his challenge of catching Verstappen easier, starting this weekend in Baku.
“I think the main thing is that we got out of turn four. [in Monza] “I was first and third and I had the biggest gap in the world going into the corner,” said Norris, referring to Piastri’s overtake at the Italian GP.
“So it wasn’t an ideal moment for me, but also for the team. It’s not how we should have raced there. I think there were clearer instructions given on how we can race against each other.”
“In general, [the new rules are] probably for lower positions, but if he fought for a victory and deserves it, then he deserves to win.
