McLaren boss Andrea Stella has suggested that the team might consider prioritising Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri to help bolster his Formula 1 title hopes in 2024.
Norris has emerged as Max Verstappen’s closest challenger in the Drivers’ Championship since McLaren became the benchmark and Red Bull encountered struggles.
But Norris wasted a chance to make greater inroads on Verstappen’s seismic points lead at Monza as he turned pole position into third as the Dutchman trailed sixth.
Norris surrendered the lead to Piastri on the opening lap when the Australian made an ambitious move at the second chicane which the Briton branded as “too close”.
Stella has conceded that McLaren will review whether Piastri’s move adhered to its racing rules as it squandered an on-track 1-2 to Charles Leclerc, who won the race.
With Piastri 43 points behind his team-mate, the decision to not impose team orders meant Norris missed out on cutting more into Verstappen’s now 62-point margin.
Despite not wanting to rule out Piastri’s prospects, Stella has acknowledged that Norris represents McLaren’s greatest chance to take a championship double in 2024.
Asked whether he thinks Norris is its sole driver able to win the title, Stella told media including Motorsport Week: “I think both drivers are mathematically in condition to do so.
“But Lando is obviously in the best position from a numbers point of view.
“We are fighting Max Verstappen so I think if we want to give support to one driver we certainly have to pick the one who is in the best position.
“Also, I think Lando has been doing very well. Pole position in Zandvoort, pole position here.
“If anything with Lando we need to adjust some little racing things which may help him, help us, capitalise on pole position like we had in Monza.
“I think if you look [at] his first lap, while we review it together, we might see there were a couple of things we could have done better.”
Stella has indicated that McLaren’s stance on placing added importance on Norris’ results could change with Red Bull’s worsening woes leaving Verstappen exposed.
“Already in our conversation before the race here we acknowledged the Lando is in the best position from a Drivers’ Championship point of view,” he explained.
“We have conversations with Oscar, we have conversations with Lando and we have conversations 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, detailed, specific, takes into account the videos.
“What was the drivers’ expectations and then see what we can learn from this situation to adjust future situations, save the fact we do want to give it a go at the championship with Lando.”
However, Stella has ruled out Norris being assigned as the team’s “number one driver” as he questioned whether that can be integrated in a manner that is productive.
“I think number one driver works well as a headline but I’m not sure it works well in the real world in terms of what does it mean and what do you do?” he highlighted.
“Let’s say, for instance, hypothetically that we conclude in Turn 4 that Lando just broke to early and Oscar kind of measured it and the possibility to take the lead, then what does it mean if you are number one and you swap the lap after? It’s just very difficult to implement the definition in the real world.
“I think it’s better to keep working as a team, get the opinion of both drivers and then work together to try to pursue this objective in both championships.
“Because it now looks like the Drivers’ Championship is definitely a possibility.
“We were a little cautious, even before Monza, but now we can see that McLaren can compete at circuits where last year we were not competitive.
“So I think it is a very competitive package overall and this could be a very important weapon for Lando in particular in the quest for the championship.”
Too late Andrea, should have done it in Hungary…
The best plan is to tell Norris to drive better.