It's natural for McLaren to support Norris, claims Stella
With the 2024 F1 season approaching its climax, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella reckons that the Woking-based outfit will prioritize Lando Norris both in terms of strategy and technical support.
McLaren find themselves in a very strong position this year. After several tough seasons, the Woking-based outfit raised its competitiveness last season with an early upgrade package, and managed to carry over this form for the current championship.
The British team claimed its first victory this year at the Miami Grand Prix courtesy of Lando Norris while his team-mate Oscar Piastri secured his own maiden F1 triumph in Budapest. This followed by three victories - Norris won in Zandvoort and Singapore and Piastri was victorious in Baku.
The five victories and the string of podium finishes see McLaren lead the constructors' championship and the team is poised to clinch its first teams' title since the 1998 F1 season, heading second-placed Ferrari by 36 points.
In the drivers standings, Norris has a slight chance to beat reigning champion Max Verstappen. In the Sao Paulo F1 Sprint, Piastri led much of the 24-lap event while Norris remained close on his tail throughout. Following some earlier discussions over the radio, the team opted to switch the cars on Lap 22 – allowing Norris to move ahead and take the victory.
In the race, Norris found himself behind his team-mate again, and McLaren elected to use team order again, asking the Australian to let Norris by.
Pushed on to explain how McLaren approaches this final leg of the 2024 F1 season, the Woking-based outfit's leader Andrea Stella reckons that it is natural that the driver who still has a chance to clinch the drivers' title receives priority.
"In terms of this topic, the situation hasn't actually changed very much compared to some comments that we made. I think we were already before Baku.
"We are in the quest for both championships. Lando is the driver that is in contention for the Drivers' Championship, so it's natural that we are going to support Lando.
"We have always said that we would do that in the spirit of our principles, which lean onto integrity, sportsmanship, fairness to both drivers, and that's what we are trying to do.
"You will have seen that in both Austin and Mexico for instance Lando had some upgraded parts which were not available for both cars. so we gave them to Lando and this is a way of creating a support to the driver that is in the fight for the championship.
"At the same time, as part of our approach, we keep having pretty much daily conversations with both drivers because we want to make sure that if some actions are required in a competitive session, this comes with the agreement from both parties because we look at the season, but we also look at the future," concluded the Italian.
