McLaren’s Andrea Stella is a diplomatic man who is rightly earning the plaudits for overseeing the team’s substantial improvement over the past 20 months.
A steady hand on the tiller, Stella is a key factor behind McLaren’s transformation and until now, has comfortably rowed down the middle in terms of siding with his drivers, maintaining an impressive degree of harmony and diplomacy.
But as the team moves into the second half of the season there is now a chance, albeit a slim one, for them to win both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship titles.
Despite what Norris thinks, saying after his win in the Dutch Grand Prix it was «pretty stupid» to think about winning this year’s drivers’ title given Max Verstappen’s 70-point advantage in the championship, the reality is Norris is in this battle.
Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said Norris’s victory was «alarming» both from their team — and Verstappen’s — perspective, with the reigning world champion now without a win in five races. For the first time since winning the title in 2021, he looks vulnerable and no longer assured of a solid haul of points at each race.
However, for the time being, at least, Stella is reluctant to put all McLaren’s eggs in one basket and prioritise Norris’s end to the season over Piastri.
After Norris’s victory in Zandvoort, he explained his reasoning at length and with a refreshing amount of openness and said: «We always have conversations around team orders — from race one. Because you always want to enter a race having clarity as to how we are going to manage the internal competition between the two drivers.
Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing, Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, Andrea Stella, Team Principal, McLaren F1 Team, the McLaren team celebrate victory
Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
«So the conversations about team orders happen throughout the season, but then you have to take this conversation within the context of what is, for instance, the driver’s classification.
«In general, our approach is to be fair, to have integrity in the way we go racing and I keep saying that I’ve known no driver that wants to be number one on a contract.
«Drivers want to be number one because they are fast on track and then when you are fast on track, definitely, you want to be supported by the team, when it’s a 50/50 decision or when the team can assist.
«We have nine races ahead of us, and if we created a number one driver, then what do we do? All the favour to the number one driver?
«This is not a healthy way of running a team. But for every race, we will analyse the situations, and in the 50/50 situations, or in those cases in which — in this case, Lando may need a bit of extra support from the team — we are going to give it. But the team includes Oscar.
«Like, the team should not do things that don’t look reasonable to Oscar. We are in this together. You don’t go as a team and a driver and the other driver kind of follows despite him.
«He needs to be part of this conversation, and he needs to be in agreement with what we think is the way forward.»
On the one hand, it is impressive seeing Stella stick to the team’s values, for McLaren has long since maintained there was not a number-one driver within the team.
However, I cannot help but feel the time is now right for it to tweak that approach and bring Piastri into line to support Norris’s push for McLaren’s first world championship since 2008.
When Piastri was asked after qualifying at Zandvoort whether he would support Norris’s bid to beat Verstappen, he gave a wry smile and said: «If I can get into second, then obviously that makes life a little bit more straightforward for the team. But… I mean, I’m not going to do anything specific to try and make that happen. I want to try and win the race myself. Let’s see what I can try and do.»
From that brief exchange, it was clear his focus was on his own self-interest and in keeping with McLaren’s overall strategy not to prioritise a particular driver.
However, we have already seen that questioned this season at the Hungarian Grand Prix where the team asked Norris and Piastri to swap places in the final stages of the race, culminating in the Australian’s first victory in F1.
While it was fantastic for Piastri to get off the mark, will those seven points surrendered by Norris come back to haunt him later in the year in his battle with Verstappen?
The reality, of course, is that we don’t know yet. But what we do know is this position of fighting for wins and titles — is a new experience for many staff working at McLaren and with it comes learning.
Talent aside, Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher all won titles thanks to some cooperation from their team-mates.
Would it not make sense to deploy Piastri in that supporting role to give Norris a better chance of beating Verstappen, who himself seems cut adrift from his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez?
McLaren are free to pick whatever approach they think is best but they also cannot afford to miss out on a great chance like this to win a world crown.
Maintaining the status quo and continuing to walk that tightrope of diplomacy is admirable, but having its drivers in P2 and P3 in the championship come the end of the year will only point to an opportunity missed.
Piastri won’t like it and it will take all of Stella’s negotiating and man-management skills, but maybe it is time he was pulled into line to support Norris’s bid to become F1 world champion.
