Does Norris deserve McLaren’s preference?

After seeing a potential win slip away at Monza, the debate of whether McLaren should fully back Lando Norris to the detriment of rising star Oscar Piastri is at full steam.

With the previously dominant Max Verstappen and Red Bull starting to struggle and steady upgrades pushing the MCL34 to being the fastest on the grid, McLaren has found themselves in unexpected fights for both drivers and constructors Formula 1 world championships.

Having locked out the front row and the leading Red Bull of Verstappen only qualifying sixth, Italy appeared to be the perfect race for the papaya team to make significant inroads on its rival.

But partly due to its own doing and mainly down to a tyre-saving masterclass by Charles Leclerc to make the one-stop strategy work and give the Tifosi a dream victory, McLaren saw a win slip away.

Off the line Norris made a decent start to keep Piastri behind through the Variante del Rettifilo.

But for the seventh time, the Brit lost the lead on the opening lap from pole due to the #4 leaving the door open in the run up to the Variante della Roggia and the Australian snatched the opportunity by flying around the outside in stunning style.

Then when Ferrari outsmarted McLaren on the pit wall, a potential 1-2 turned into a 2-3 with the #81 in front and now questions are being raised as to whether or not McLaren are hurting itself by not fully backing Norris as he currently sits 62 points behind Verstappen, while Piastri is 106 adrift.

Even though McLaren initially defended its call to let them race hard under the “Papaya rules” tag, team principal Andrea Stella admitted maybe it was time to start prioritising Norris.

“We are fighting Max Verstappen, so I think if we want to give support to one driver, we definitely have to pick the one that is in the best position,” Stella told Autosport.

“And also Lando, he’s been doing very well, like pole position in Zandvoort, pole position here (in Monza).

“If anything with Lando, we need to adjust some little racing things which may help him, and may help us capitalise on a pole position like we had here in Monza.

“I think if you look at his first lap, while we review it together, we might see that there were a couple of things that we could have done slightly better.”

Whilst it is clear Norris is well ahead of Piastri in the championship race, is the more established Brit doing a good enough job to deserve #1 status and seriously take the challenge to Verstappen?

In three of the last four races Piastri has been the lead McLaren across the line and the Australian has scored more points than any other driver over the last six races.

The only race where Norris overcame his teammate in that time was his dominant Dutch Grand Prix drive.

If Norris is to prove he can take the fight to Verstappen he needs to step up, not open the door for Piastri to get past and maximise the MCL34 and he knows that.

“I’m not here just to beg for someone to let me pass. That’s not why I’m here. I’m here to race,” Norris replied when asked if Piastri should have not challenged for the race lead. 

“He (Piastri) drove a better race than me, so I finished third, and that’s where I deserved to finish.”

On the side by side moment on the opening lap, Norris admitted he was a touch “cautious” which saw him slump to third although he eventually regained second with an undercut.

“Just brake a bit later. Simple as that. He got past me, and he deserves it,” he said on what he could have done differently in the press conference.

“But sometimes it’s easier said than done. Oscar obviously braked on the limit and gave me space. It was just about enough. 

“I did my best to avoid anything else happening at the time, but at the same time, if I brake two metres later, it could easily have been a crash, so it’s a tough one. 

“Easiest thing is just to brake way later and force him off and I kind of treat it like no one else. I don’t know. 

“I obviously took it easy. I saw we had a massive gap behind, so maybe I was just a bit too much on the cautious side and paid the price.”

However, speaking on the British Sky Sports F1 broadcast, Norris believed Piastri got “too close for comfort.”

Meanwhile, Piastri was adamant the move was clean and fair and was the fastest driver on the day.

“I mean, I braked later and got around the outside. There wasn’t really much more to it than that,” he said. 

“We both got through unscathed. I knew once I hit the brakes, you know, I kind of got ahead a bit and yeah, I knew I was kind of entitled to stay on the outside. 

“Ultimately, for 38 laps of that race, it put me in a race-winning position. So yeah, for me, it was just a good first lap.”

Before McLaren got its first win in Miami, Red Bull enjoyed a huge 99-point advantage over the papaya cars.

But since then at least one McLaren has appeared on the podium in all 11 races, while Red Bull has only collected six trophies.

As a result Red Bull’s lead in the constructors championship has been slashed from almost triple figures to single figures with eight the difference.

However, Verstappen’s lead in the drivers title has actually increased despite McLaren’s dominance with the gap to Norris growing from 52 prior to Miami to 62 now.

Norris also knows time is running out to make enough inroads to keep the unrealistic title fight alive.

“Obviously, I wouldn’t say we’re running out of time, but time is going away slowly and I still believe we can do it,” he said. 

“The pace is obviously great. I still believe we’re probably close to, if not the best car again today. I don’t know. It’s not for me to decide. “It’s for the team, but I think we’re still working together well. 

“We’re still helping one another and I think that showed plenty of times this year that we’re working together very well as a team and we’re performing as the best team out on the grid and we’re very happy with that.

“When you’re fighting for a championship, you want every little thing and I’m doing everything I can. 

“The best way simply is just to win the race and I didn’t do that today because of some silly things.”

How costly will Hungary and Italy be in Norris’ title chances? The answer will only arise if he is close enough at the end of the season.

Photo by Sam Bagnall / LAT Images

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