McLaren ready to support Lando Norris for the title, Stella: “We don’t want to see a situation like the one in Monza again.”

by Letizia Ganci

A rivalry almost budding between the McLaren duo that might remind many of the Hamilton-Rosberg pairing at Mercedes. Here’s what Andrea Stella said about the future of the Woking team.

There’s no doubt that the MCL38 is the most powerful and competitive car on the tracks of the 2024 Formula 1 championship, and that the leadership of Italian Andrea Stella has led the Woking team to incredible results. However, on the other hand, as the saying goes, “the devil is in the details”—a phrase that can summarize McLaren’s situation in managing Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris under what have been called the “papaya rules,” a term used by Will Joseph, the British driver’s engineer, during the Italian GP.

Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, explained what the so-called papaya rules were about, confirming what had already been said by CEO Zak Brown: “The papaya rules are only about racing without risks, without contact between the two McLarens, and in a respectful manner. That’s all. It’s just a quick way to remind our drivers: ‘Guys, don’t take too many risks when battling each other.’‘”.

Lando Norris leading the field in his McLaren during the 2024 Italian Grand Prix.
Lando Norris leading the field in his McLaren during the 2024 Italian Grand Prix.

During the latest Grand Prix, held on the Italian circuit at Monza, the free competition between the two papaya drivers, who started in first and second positions, allowed Charles Leclerc to slip between the two McLarens and ultimately win the Monza race, replicating his historic success from 2019. The team principal of the British squad commented on the incident exclusively to the BBC, emphasizing that it is an episode that should not be repeated as it was not favorable to the team.

What we don’t want to see any more 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. The team interests comes first and these are the situations that above all we need to fix because eventually, as a matter of fact, the way we entered the race in Monza left the door open this situation.”.

Moreover, he outlined three objectives that the team has set for the Baku event, where Lando Norris arrives just 62 points behind three-time world champion Max Verstappen, and therefore still in contention for the title this season: “After Monza, three objectives: we need to make sure that anything that happens on track is not to the detriment of the team. Second objective, how do we win both championships, both drivers committed to help? But what we don’t want to do is win in a reckless way. Those are the three topics and they define the way we go racing in Baku. This will be updated after Baku.”.

Also not to be forgotten is the Constructors’ Championship, still in play with eight races remaining in the season. It’s being closely watched not only by the Woking-based team but also by Ferrari, which is just 31 points behind, and Red Bull, which, as is well known, is not currently experiencing its most dominant and prosperous period.

Another topic of discussion was the conversation between the Italian team principal and the two McLaren drivers; in this regard, Stella stated that both drivers accepted the change, acknowledging that the team’s result is more important than the individual result: “The conversations 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 always very impressed by the level of team spirit and maturity and collaboration that we found in this period.

On the other hand, regarding Lando Norris, Andrea Stella reported that the British driver wants to win fairly without any unjust favoritism: “Lando wants to win because he deserved the victory on track. It’s OK to be occasionally supported by your team-mate, but you don’t want to use, systematically, ways of adjusting the race just for the sake of the points when your team-mate is scoring in a way that he deserves. This is not the way McLaren want to win, or the way Lando wants to win.“.

“If I ask Lando, he would say: ‘I am comfortable if in Abu Dhabi I miss a few points that I could have got with some actions, butif those actions were not right at the time, then, you know what? We keep strong as a team, the team is stable and cohesive, we will give it a go next year’“.

The opinions of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on the “papaya rules”

The team have asked me to help out and I’ve said for the last few races that if I was asked, then I would. Of course, naturally as a driver it’s never an easy thing, or simple thing, to agree to. There’s a much bigger picture in play than just myself. I’m still coming out here to try and achieve the best results I can and put myself in a good position to just score a lot of points for myself and also the team. I know that if there are some ways of helping the points for Lando, then I’ll do that.Oscar Piastri said regarding the likelihood that McLaren might ask the Australian to play a supporting role to Lando Norris.

Referring to the possibility of a 1-2 situation at the start like in Monza, the driver of car number 81 clarified that the lost opportunity for victory at the Temple of Speed should not be attributed to the situation with Norris during the first lap and that there might be different management in the future: ‘I think it would be different, yes of course. In Monza coming out of the second chicane in first and third for the team is of course not ideal“.

For myself, yes, it put me in a race-winning position. We didn’t finish in second and third because of this move. We finished second and third because of a bold strategy from Ferrari. Some things will be different from now [on], but we’ll just see what kind of race circumstances we’re in first“.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, at the 2024 Italian Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, Lando Norris, the second-place driver in the Drivers’ Championship, focused on the clarity that any potential team orders could bring between the drivers and the pit wall: “For sure it’s giving me a better chance (to challenge Verstappen), which is the whole reasoning for doing it. Not just that – there’s a lot of times it will benefit us as a team also, so it’s not just a sole benefit for me but also from a team point of view. It’s just clarity“.

I think when you’re behind the wheel and you’re driving and you’re racing against people, you always just want clarity on how far you can push things, how safe you need to be, what are the limits, what are the boundaries, that kind of thing. t’s the same with everything, you want to win it fair, and I think in any sport once you’ve done something that you know is not fair, that stays in your mind forever. That’s not how I work, it’s not how McLaren works“.

We’ll help each other within our constraints of how we can work together as a team, but that’s it. “I think when another driver has an advantage and he’s performing better or he’s driving quicker, there’s an advantage he has because he’s doing a better job. If I’m behind and I’m not doing as good of a job, that’s where I deserve to be” Norris concluded by paraphrasing the saying, ‘may the best man win.’

Photo: McLaren, Formula 1

You may also like

Contatti

Scarica l'app

©2024 – Designed and Developed by GPKingdom

Feature Posts