14 October 2023 , 10:44
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Lando Norris' rivalry with Oscar Piastri is causing a "headache" for team boss Andrea Stella, though it is one he is delighted to have.
Since the British Grand Prix, McLaren have surged into contention for podiums, having endured a dreadful season before that. Norris has scored five podiums to Piastri's two since the race at Silverstone, though the Australian did win the Sprint in Qatar.
Piastri finished second in the main race in Qatar last week, with Norris coming home in third, though the Brit was left unhappy when the team ordered him to not take on his team-mate. Norris fired back at his race engineer Will Joseph when asked to hold position.
He was heard on team radio saying: “Why do you want to do that? We have a big gap. I’m clearly a lot quicker.” When Joseph admitted the team were "worried" about George Russell behind, Norris replied: “Exactly, you’re worried, so…”
While some bosses may be concerned about that desire to push back against team orders, Stella is not so worried. Instead, he has encouraged both Norris and Piastri to challenge him if they think he is getting the strategy wrong.
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“I’d rather have this kind of headache. We do prepare always these kind of objectives, we remind them of our racing principles all the time in preparation for an event and before the race,” he said.
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McLaren boss Andrea Stella is happy to see a rivalry between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri (Clive Rose/Getty Images)“And one of the principles is that the team comes first. We are fair and the drivers just need to trust us. The drivers have been very close all weekend, within the space of a couple of tenths all weekend. And even [in the race] they were again very close. It’s a mega result for McLaren.
“In terms of the message you’ve heard this is part of our protocol because when we give a driver instructions, we tell them challenge us because we want to make sure we understand your point of view.
“Challenge us, tell us exactly what we think, we will reassess the situation and come back to you and once we come back to you just respect it. And this is exactly what happened today. So, that’s why you hear back, we ask the drivers to challenge us.”
It is a stark contrast to the situation over at Constructors champions Red Bull. Max Verstappen has surged to his third successive world championship, but Sergio Perez has struggled, with team principal Christian Horner admitting his frustration.
"You can see Mercedes have a pair, McLaren have a pair, Ferrari have a pair that are quite tight between the respective drivers. I think we've had that at the earlier point in the year. But as the season has gone on it's become more variant," he said.
"The frustration is that we know what Checo has been capable of doing. Of course, last year and this year, he's contributed significantly to the constructors' championship. We desperately want him to find that form and as a team; we need him to. We can't afford to have a big split."