Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Formula 1, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Marcus Chan
McLaren have made a big call regarding Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
At the start of the month, Norris qualified in pole position for the Italian Grand Prix in Monza as he continued his bid to chase down Max Verstappen in the Formula 1 world championship.
However, the Brit ended up finishing in third place behind teammate Piastri and Ferrari superstar Charles Leclerc, who won the race.
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Despite starting in first place, Norris was overtaken at the Roggia chicane after Piastri successfully made an aggressive and risky move.
After the race, a lot was made about the fact that McLaren allowed their drivers to race that closely despite Norris trying to hunt down Verstappen.
Ahead of this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, McLaren have now asked Piastri to back Norris in his race to become the F1 world champion.
As reported by BBC Sport, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: “We [will] bias our support to Lando but we want to do it without too much compromise on our principles.
“What we don't want to see any more is a situation like in Monza in which we enter a chicane P1/P2 and we exit P1/P3. Because that is a detriment to the team.
“The team interests comes first and these are the situations that above all we need to fix because eventually, as a matter of fact, the way we entered the race in Monza left the door open this situation.”
He added: “After Monza, three objectives: we need to make sure that anything that happens on track is not to the detriment of the team. Second objective, how do we win both championships, both drivers committed to help? But what we don't want to do is win in a reckless way. Those are the three topics and they define the way we go racing in Baku. This will be updated after Baku.
“The conversations have been very collaborative. Even when I said to Oscar: 'Would you be available to give up a victory?' He said: 'It's painful, but if it's the right thing to do now, I will do it’.”