McLaren CEO Zak Brown has admitted that he sees “some logic” behind the external calls to start prioritising Lando Norris’ Formula 1 championship chances in 2024.
The role the McLaren drivers almost touching on the opening lap had on it losing the Italian Grand Prix race win has reignited the discussion surrounding team orders.
Norris lost his pole position advantage at the start in Monza when Oscar Piastri made a pass around the outside at Turn 4, which also let Charles Leclerc slip through.
Leclerc sandwiching the two McLaren drivers prompted Norris to commit to an undercut that boxed him into a two-stop race as Ferrari managed to win on a one-stop.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella disclosed post-race that a review would take place into whether Piastri’s aggressive move had adhered to the side’s rules of engagement.
“We will have to review together with the drivers, with the videos,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“Understand their point of view and then we will assess together whether they were fully compliant or not.
“We will take the learning, if there is any learning they need to take, and then we will apply the papaya rules such that they allow us to pursue in the best possible manner
both the constructors’ championship and the drivers’ championship.”
But speaking to Speed City Broadcasting, Brown has clarified that Piastri’s overtake to get into the lead at the second chicane didn’t go against the team’s racing rules.
Asked whether McLaren should have swapped the two cars, Brown retorted: “No. Lando ran along there, we had some discussion about what we wanted to do there.
“At the end of the day, the papaya rules are race each other, hard but fair, and don’t touch each other. And that’s what they did. We’ll take it one race at a time.”
Stella also acknowledged that Norris, who resides 45 points above Piastri, represents McLaren’s greatest title prospect amid Red Bull’s worsening troubles at Monza.
Brown has conceded he can see the rationale behind increasing its support to the Briton in the remaining eight rounds but denied that team orders were forthcoming.
When it was put to him that McLaren should put all its eggs in the Norris basket, Brown said: “Yeah, there’s some logic behind that. There’s also a lot of racing to go.
“And Oscar’s helped Lando a lot over the course of the year in different ways. Sometimes that’s visible, sometimes that’s not. But Andrea and I just take it one race at a time.”
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