McLaren is looking much more confident than its rivals at this stage of the season, and Lando Norris can already be considered a title contender. If the British team continues to score points at this rate, it will soon be able to pull ahead of its rivals, Red Bull Racing, in the Constructors’ Championship.
In this situation, McLaren want to call on Norris, but team principal Andrea Stella made it clear that they want to do the right thing and not violate the basic principles of the sport.
“We will support Lando first and foremost, but we don’t want it to conflict too much with our principles,” Stella told BBC Sport. “Those principles are that the interests of the team always come first. And at the same time, we want to treat both riders fairly.
But we don’t want to repeat the situation we saw in Monza in the first corners after the start, as it is detrimental to the interests of the team. They have to come first, so the first thing we have to do is deal with these kinds of situations, although there was a possibility that this could happen when we started the race in Monza.
After Monza, we set ourselves three tasks: first, whatever happens on the track, it must not harm the interests of the team. Second, we have to decide how we will fight for victory in both championships? Both drivers are ready to help the team, but we do not want to win at all costs.
These three themes will define our approach to the race in Baku, and we will make further adjustments after that. When we spoke to our riders, both showed complete understanding and willingness to work together.
Even when I asked Oscar if he would be willing to give up the chance to fight for victory, he replied: “It’s a shame, but if that’s what I have to do now, I will do it.”
Every racer is really focused on winning, so I’m really impressed with the level of sportsmanship, maturity and teamwork that they’re showing right now.”
Stella declined to go into further detail about how they plan to help Norris, saying only that decisions will be made “on a case-by-case basis” and that the team will not interfere with its riders unless necessary.
“Lando wants to win because he deserves to win on the track,” said the McLaren team boss. – If your partner supports you periodically, that’s normal, but you don’t want to apply this tactic systematically. We don’t want to win like this, and Lando doesn’t want to win either… We have to act thoughtfully, and although we are now talking about fighting for the title, we must not lose sight of the situation in the Constructors’ Championship, and there are at least three teams fighting for it.”
Heading into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Lando Norris is 62 points behind Max Verstappen in the personal standings, but in the constructors’ championship Red Bull Racing and McLaren are only eight points apart.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
