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Lando Norris has said he would not want McLaren to have to use team orders to aid him in winning his first world championship at the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Both he and his teammate, Oscar Piastri, insisted they had not yet discussed the potential use of orders for the decisive grand prix.
Norris goes into the 24th and final race of the season as favourite but still in a close, high-pressure fight with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Piastri, enjoying a 12-point lead on Verstappen and 16 on Piastri. Norris will take his first title if he finishes in front of both his rivals or claims third place or better. Verstappen would need to win and hope Norris finishes outside the podium places while Piastri would need to win and have Norris finish sixth or lower.
The question of team orders and McLaren’s attempts to be scrupulously fair to both drivers by allowing them to race has been a major point of debate all season. However, when asked about the possibility of team orders being implemented for Piastri to cede to Norris should Verstappen otherwise be able to win, the British driver insisted he believed it would not be fair to ask his teammate to do so.
“No, not been discussed,” he said. “Honestly, I would love it. But I don’t think I would ask it. It’s up to Oscar if he would allow it. I don’t think it’s necessarily down to me. It’s the same if it’s the other way around.
“Would I be willing to or not? Personally, I think I would, just because I feel like I’m always like that and that’s just how I am. But it’s not really up to me and I’m not going to ask it. I don’t want to ask it because I don’t think it’s necessarily a fair question. If that’s how it ends and Max wins, then, well, that’s it. Congrats to him and I look forward to next year.”
The team’s position has always been that they would let their driver’s race freely while both were still in the title fight. However, they have intervened in order to maintain pre-agreed arrangements. At Monza, McLaren had Piastri cede a place to Norris, which the British diver lost through a slow pit stop.
After the last round in Qatar the McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, said the team would discuss relevant scenarios so all parties were clear going into the final round. There is no doubt McLaren want to secure their first world championship since 2008, when Lewis Hamilton won.
The most likely scenario where Piastri might be required to give way to his teammate would be if Verstappen was leading with Piastri third and Norris fourth and the pair switching would ensure the British driver secured the title.
With the three title protagonists lined up together in the press conference at the Yas Marina circuit on Thursday, sat beside the trophy one of them will win on Sunday night, Piastri added that he had yet to be apprised of the team’s expected position.
“It’s not something we’ve discussed,” he said. “Until I know what’s expected, I don’t really have an answer.”
Aware of the importance of the weekend, McLaren cancelled Norris’s usual session of speaking to the British media, which takes place on the Thursday before every race, with the 26-year-old doubtless happy to not have to answer more questions about his title chances. However, in the official press conference he did address what it would mean to him to win it.
“This has been my whole life, it’s everything I’ve worked towards my whole life, so it would mean the world to me, it would mean the world to everyone that’s supported and pushed me for the 16 years of my life,” he said. “It would mean everything. It would mean my life until now has been a success and I’ve accomplished that dream I had when I was a kid.”
Mercedes’ George Russell, meanwhile, said it would be “unacceptable” to ask Piastri to move aside and sacrifice his own title ambitions even if that meant Verstappen won the title.
“I don’t think it’s acceptable or reasonable to ask a driver who’s also in a shot of a championship in the very last race to move over for your teammate,” Russell said. “They both need to be given a shot and if they lose out because of it, you just need to say the other guy did a better job and that’s racing.”
