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McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella spoke about the roles of his drivers and who he believes is in the best position to win the Driver’s Championship.
McLaren has been the strongest team over the middle half of the season. They have shown an outstanding pace and outshined their rival team and the reigning World Champions, Red Bull Racing. After the most recent race, McLaren is only eight points behind the Milton Keynes-based team.
The Monza mistake
The Italian Grand Prix weekend started off strong, with McLaren being the clear favourite to come out on top. Both drivers showed an amazing pace on practice days and Saturday’s Qualifying concluded with them locking the front row. Lando Norris took pole position while Oscar Piastri placed himself second on the starting grid.
Unfortunately for Norris, he lost positions to both his teammate and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the first lap of the race. Luckily for McLaren, one of their drivers was still in the lead. But Ferrari’s one-stop strategy turned out successful and granted Leclerc the victory in front of the euphoric Tifosi.
Piastri ended the race in second place while a disappointed Norris, who was expecting a victory at one of Formula 1’s most iconic races, only got to stand on the third step of the podium.
The first driver debate
During the beginning of the race, when Piastri passed his teammate with a bold and somewhat controversial move, some people expected McLaren to give team orders to benefit Norris, who is ahead of his teammate in the championship. But the team just responded with their so-called “papaya rules”, allowing their drivers to fight.
After the race, Team Principal Stella was questioned about the team’s decision and how he plans to back the driver with the biggest shot for the Championship.
“Both drivers are mathematically in position,” he answered. “But Lando is obviously in the best position from a numbers point of view, and we are fighting Max Verstappen, so if we have to give support to one driver, we have to pick the driver that is in the best position.
“Already in our conversation even before the race here [at Monza], we acknowledged that Lando is in the best position in the drivers’ championship point of view.
“We have conversations with Oscar, with Lando, and together, and that defines our rules of engagement. We need to take a look at the first lap, but it has to be done in a way that is competent, is detailed, is specific, takes into account the videos, the drivers’ expectation…
“Then [we will] see what we can learn from this situation to adjust future situations, save the fact we do want to give it a go with the championship with Lando right now.”
The next race in the calendar is Baku and with 8 rounds left, McLaren seems to be the strongest contender for the Constructor’s Championship. As for the Driver’s Championship, it is still unclear if Norris is going to be able to catch up to take the glory from the reigning World Champion.
Feature Image Credit: GSI/Icon Sport via Getty Images