Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri ‘aligned’ on McLaren’s approach for rest of the F1 season

As media day in Baku ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix unfolded, news from McLaren regarding the heavily debated “Papaya Rules” worked through the Formula 1 world. In an exclusive interview with BBC Sport, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella told Andrew Benson that the team would display a “bias” in favor of Lando Norris’ bid for the Drivers’ Championship, all while balancing the team’s pursuit of Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship.

Now both drivers, speaking with the official F1 channel on media day, have weighed in. According to both Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri, “fairness” remains the name of the game at McLaren.

“They are,” began Norris when asked if McLaren was backing him in the Drivers’ Championship.

But things are much more complex than that simple statement, as Norris elaborated.

“It’s not as simple as that,” continued Norris. “So a lot of people think it’s very simple and very straightforward. It’s not.

“People can believe what they want and come up with their own opinions.

But Oscar is also a driver fighting for his own championship, his own career. And that’s a very valid reason for him to wanna fight and do well, you know,” said Norris. “So it depends what the positions are for, what positions we’re fighting for. There’s many different scenarios.

“So, yeah, people on the outside think it’s an easy, simple thing. It’s not, but we’ve come up with a good plan of how we can approach it all.”

In Norris’ words, the “plan” McLaren has come up with comes down to fairness for both drivers, and the team.

“You want to win it fair. I think in any sport, as soon as you’ve done something that’s not fair that stays in your mind forever. But that’s not how I work. It’s not how McLaren works. So we’ll help each other within our constraints of how we can work together as a team.

“But that’s it.

“And 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. And if I’m behind it, I’m not doing as good of a job.

“That’s where I deserve to be.”

On the other side of the garage, Piastri admitted that if he were asked to help Norris in his pursuit of Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship, he would be willing to do exactly that.

“The team have asked me to help out and I’ve said it for the last few races that if I was asked, then I would,” stated Piastri to the official F1 channel on Thursday.

“Naturally as a driver it’s never, I guess an easy thing or a simple thing to agree to. But, again, there’s a much bigger picture of play than just myself,” continued Piastri. “I’m still coming out here to try and achieve the best results that I can, and, you know, put myself in a good position to score a lot of points for first myself and also the team. But I know that if there’s some ways of helping the points for Lando, then I’ll do that.”

Piastri also addressed his opening-lap overtake of Norris at the Italian Grand Prix, a dazzling move at Turn 4 that pulled him into the lead, and saw Norris shuffled back to P3. While Piastri called that a move that put him in position for a race victory, he also conceded that McLaren starting the race P1 and P2, and finishing the opening lap in P1 and P3, was not the strongest result for the team in their chase of Red Bull atop the Constructors’ Championship.

However, he declared that it was Ferrari’s “bold” strategy that won them the race, not his opening lap pass of his teammate.

“You know, in Monza, coming out of the second chicane in first and third, you know, for the team is of course not ideal,” said Piastri. “Yes, it put me in a race-winning position and, you know, we didn’t finish second and third because of this move, we finished second and third because of a bold strategy from Ferrari.

“So, yeah, some things will be different from now, but we’ll just see what kind of race circumstances we’re in first.”

Piastri also declared that he did not break any sort of team orders with his opening-lap pass.

Similar to Norris, Piastri outlined how this adjustment in the rules of engagement will be decided on a case-by-case basis, and neither driver wants — or expects — to be handed a race win when the other is better on that given day.

“For the whole team, it is very much within our values that we want to avoid that if we can,” said Piastri about a hypothetical where he would sacrifice a ten-second lead over Norris to give his teammate a win.

“And, you know, I know after speaking with Lando and Andrea [Stella] that nobody wants to see the race dictated by that, and that includes Lando himself.

“Ultimately, it’s up to the team to decide if that’s what we do and I know that if the call comes then that’s what I’ll be doing. But it’s not set in stone that I will give up the race, no matter what the circumstances are,” continued Piastri. “So there is still some, you know, degree of movement and flexibility. Because ultimately, we all agree that as a team, if someone has done a clearly better job on the weekend, then, you know, that still deserves to be rewarded.

“And of course, if it’s Lando, then, obviously in my championship position, then I’m not gonna be doing that. But if it was that way, you know, I wouldn’t, if my teammate was beating me by ten seconds, I wouldn’t then want that or expect that in return. “So, I think we’re all very aligned on that and ultimately, it will be the team’s call at the time.”