McLaren Prioritizing Lando Norris' Title Challenge After Several Races Got A Little Awkward

If you've been keeping up with Formula 1 this season, after a snooze-inducing 2023 that saw Max Verstappen breeze to an easy World Championship, we've got actual battles happening at the top of both the driver and constructor standings.

The biggest challenge has come from McLaren, but with their car so competitive, they've run into multiple instances of drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri battling with each other and cutting into the former's points total as he tries to chase down Verstappen.

However, ahead of this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella told BBC Sport, that the team plans to prioritize Norris when necessary.

"We [will] bias our support to Lando but we want to do it without too much compromise on our principles," Stella said. "Our principles are that the team interest always comes first. Sportsmanship for us is important in the overall way we go racing. And then we want to be fair to both drivers."

A battle between McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on the opening lap of the Italian Grand Prix proved to be costly and allowed Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc into second place. He went on to win. (Photo by Sam Bloxham/LAT Images)

Decision Comes After McLaren Drivers Cost Each Other Points

This comes after some controversial moments this season between the two McLaren drivers, most notably in Hungary when Norris was asked to give up the win to Piastri after team strategy inadvertently swapped the two cars. 

While McLaren still wound up with a one-two finish — huge for the constructors' championship; they currently trail Red Bull by just eight points — but dropping to P2 cost Norris seven points in the drivers' standings. While the move was made to keep peace within the team, it was a headscratcher to fork over points that could've gone to their only legitimate championship contender this season.

Norris currently trails Verstappen by 62 points with just eight race weekends left, and only a maximum of 26 points available at all events, except for weekends at Circuit of the Americas, Brazil, and Qatar where sprint races will make some additional points available.

This McLaren decision comes after an Incident between the team's drivers in the Italian Grand Prix in which Piastri overtook pole-sitter Norris for the lead on the opening lap, and his move opened the door for eventual race-winner Charles Leclerc to pass Norris as well.

"What we don't want to see anymore 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," Stella said.

This isn't what you want to hear if you're Oscar Piastri, but it shows that McLaren is pushing their chips into the center of the table when it comes to both championships.

The only problem is they may have done it just a bit too late to have a real shot at a drivers' championship.