Oscar Piastri has claimed that McLaren has chosen an “appropriate time” to state that it will lend more support to team-mate Lando Norris’ Formula 1 title aspiration.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella has asserted on the eve of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that Norris’ championship hopes will be prioritised over the remaining eight rounds.
Norris resides a considerable 62 points behind Max Verstappen, but Red Bull’s dwindling competitiveness has made chasing that gap down a more realistic ambition.
McLaren’s reversal on its reluctance to back one driver over the other has derived from Piastri’s bold opening-lap pass on Norris at Monza hindering its win prospects.
Stella revealed that Piastri, who is 44 points behind his team-mate, has agreed to give up potential victories to Norris on track should the circumstances demand that.
Piastri, who had been adamant that his attention was on his slim chances this term, has acknowledged that the moment is correct to help McLaren bag a title double.
“It has obviously been something we have discussed a lot in the last few days, selfishly as a driver in my own interests, of course, team orders are not that fun but in saying that I realise there is a much bigger picture here than just myself,” Piastri told Autosport.
“I race for a team that has given me my opportunity in F1 and given me the opportunity to win races in Formula 1 within 18 months of being here, so I have a lot of gratitude for that but again the bigger picture is about much more than just me. We are trying to achieve both championships which for the team is an incredibly big thing.
“Of course, the Constructors is one thing but if you have the opportunity to win both championships in a year then as a team it is a massive objective to try and win both.
“Being selfish, I would prefer to not have it, but I am very aware it is not all about me and I’m happy to play a supporting role at this point in the season, I think any earlier in the season it would have probably been excessive, but I think now it is an appropriate time to try and help the team win both championships.”
But with Norris having said his team-mate won’t be instructed to sacrifice wins to the sister car, Piastri has denied that he will be told to move aside on each occasion.
“It still needs some more discussion, but I think the main point is it is not just me pulling over for Lando at every single race, that is how none of us – including Lando – want to go racing. Trying to go through all the scenarios is impossible and of course we don’t want to discuss that publicly,” he said.
“The main one is that if we feel that someone has done a much better job on a weekend, whichever way it is, we want that person to be rewarded and that is of course where it becomes a bit tricky still and we need to continue discussing that.
“But it is not simply a blanket ‘I’m going to be behind Lando in every single race’ and every decision that is taken here on out because I still have things that I want to achieve in the championship and try to boost my standing in the championship.”
The Australian has also argued that Ferrari’s well-executed one-stop proved a greater determining aspect in McLaren’s Italian Grand Prix loss than his robust overtake.
However, Piastri has indicated that such a pass on a team-mate when the two are running 1-2 would not have complied with McLaren’s renewed rules of engagement.
“In those exact same scenarios some things would be different,” Piastri added.
“In those circumstances what I did was fine. I thought it was a good move and of course, the consequence of coming out of the corner in first and third is not what we want as a team.
“Of course, it takes both of our co-operation to make sure that result doesn’t happen again but in those circumstances it was all by the book, there was nothing wrong with that, but it was purely just that the result out of the corner was not exactly what we wanted.
“In saying that, the result at the end of the race in my opinion wasn’t dictated because of that, it was because Ferrari pulled off a big gamble on strategy and without that with Charles, we would have still finished first and second.”
