Former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle believes that Oscar Piastri cares very little about the title ambitions of his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris
How much support can Lando Norris expect from his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in the World Championship title fight against Max Verstappen? Former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle says: Piastri is thinking first and foremost about himself
He writes in his Sky column: “Piastri doesn’t care about Norris’ world championship chances. You saw that clearly in Hungary when he took the lead in the first corner.”
“The racer in me admires this attitude. Because that’s the reason why Piastri has won championships and is now sitting in a Formula 1 winning car. The last thing that would excite him would be if Norris were to become world champion in the same car.”
This does not necessarily mean that Piastri will not help his team-mate at some point. Piastri had already stood up for Norris and the interests of the team “here and there”. “But that racing driver mentality and that killer instinct are important,” says Brundle.
“I remember what I said in Hungary: ‘If it had been the other way around, would Piastri have let Norris take the lead again? I really don’t know. All I know is that a lot of unscrupulous and selfish world champions I’ve raced against wouldn’t have done it. “
Piastri at Monza: Good for him, bad for McLaren
And this attitude could lead to difficulties internally, says Brundle. The Italian Grand Prix in Monza was a good example of this: It was only the McLaren dispute over the lead on the first few meters that brought Ferrari into the game in the first place and ultimately opened up a chance of victory for Charles Leclerc.
“That was all very good for Piastri and Ferrari, but it didn’t help McLaren as a team,” explained Brundle. McLaren had “lost control of the race” at the moment of Piastri’s overtaking maneuver against Norris in the second chicane.
Because Norris dropped back to P3 behind Leclerc, McLaren was “not able to drive the optimum pace for the tires and the strategy” in the first stint. “The drivers were also unable to work together and use DRS or pit stops, for example, to destabilize their main opponents,” says Brundle.
His conclusion: Stronger cooperation at McLaren could improve Norris and McLaren’s chances of winning the title. The team management around Team Principal Andrea Stella and McLaren boss Zak Brown now seem to have recognized this. At the very least, McLaren is thinking about a concrete stable direction in favor of Norris in order to preserve his chances of winning the world championship against Verstappen and Red Bull.
