Ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has announced that they will now be favouring Lando to try and help him win the World Driver’s Championship.
But in follow-up interviews with drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the exact details of the team’s ruling doesn’t seem clear. Here’s my summary of exactly what the new Papaya Rules mean for the drivers.
Italian GP at Monza
The first lap of the Italian GP saw Oscar, who started 2nd behind his teammate, put an audacious overtake on Norris to take the lead of the race. Norris had to take avoiding action and dropped behind Charles Leclerc in to third place.
That cost the team position and eventually the win of the race. But more clearly to the rest of us, it showed that McLaren and Oscar didn’t seem to be doing enough to try and help Lando win the championship by making up the defecit to Verstappen.
After the race, Zak Brown and Andrea Stella agreed that the overtake needed to be reviewed as it didn’t seem it was in the team’s best interests, nor was it in line with Papaya Rules.
Team Orders for 50-50 calls?
There has been a two week break since the Italian GP and the next round of the F1 championshop at Baku. In that time the McLaren team has had plenty of opportunity to analyse and discuss what’s happened between their two drivers, and what to do going forwards.
When the team arrived at Baku for build up to the Azerbaijan GP weekend, one of the hottet topics was whether Stella was going to impose any team orders going forwards.
In an interview with the BBC, Stella said:
“We [will] bias our support to Lando but we want to do it without too much compromise on our principles.
“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.”
This bias towards supporting Lando is a clear shift in policy from the team. In a follow up interview with Sky Sports F1, Stella went on to explain further how this bias towards Norris would work:
“We will do this [support to Lando] when and if necessary, especially in this 50-50 calls; they will now, more naturally, end up in Lando’s territory.”
When asked by Karun Chandok if favouring Lando in those 50-50 calls would relate to on-track moves, like if both drivers are vying for position coming in to a chicane, Stella said:
“Definitely we don’t want to have situations like Monza”, suggesting that in those instances going forwards Oscar would back down from attacking Lando for the good of the team.
And Oscar has since clarified in an interview with Autosport what would happen if a repeat of the first lap at Monza arose:
“In those exact same scenarios some things would be different. In those circumstances what I did was fine. I thought it was a good move and of course, the consequence of coming out of the corner in first and third is not what we want as a team.
Stella also clarified that those 50-50 calls he referred to would apply to strategy decisions:
“When there’s a close strategic call, let’s say it would fall more naturally at Lando’s advantage.”
I believe that should an upgrade package become available for only one car only, that would go to Lando given his superior poistion in the championship standings.
Will Oscar give up position for Lando?
One of the most pressing questions is whether Oscar would give up a position for Lando if he’s running ahead of his teammate on track.
In his interview with the BBC Andrea Stella gave an insight into the discussion he’d had with Oscar on this topic:
“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’.
However, in further interviews with the drivers and the team principal, the team orders imposed on Oscar in these scenarios are less clear. In his interview with Autosport, Oscar said:
“It still needs some more discussion, but I think the main point is it is not just me pulling over for Lando at every single race, that is how none of us – including Lando – want to go racing.”
“But it is not simply a blanket ‘I’m going to be behind Lando in every single race’ and every decision that is taken here on out because I still have things that I want to achieve in the championship and try to boost my standing in the championship.”
Oscar is a racer and he was understandly not overjoyed about the team orders situation:
“Being selfish, I would prefer to not have it, but I am very aware it is not all about me and I’m happy to play a supporting role at this point in the season.”
But he concluded – “I think any earlier in the season it would have probably been excessive, but I think now it is an appropriate time to try and help the team win both championships”.
In a follow-up interview with Sky Sports F1, Stella clarified his approach to both championship challenges:
“We do want to win in the right way, and for me the right way is looking at what our values are. The first value of course is that the team’s interest comes first, but then we want to be a sportsmanlike team. Fairness to both drivers is important for us. Cohesion as we move into the future is important to us.
“This question, which we’ve definitely addressed in our conversation with Lando and Oscar, is in that situation would you Lando want to have a swap? And the interesting thing is that Lando says he wants to win on track. He doesn’t want a title that came through systematic concessions because that would negate our values.”
Karun Chandok pressed Stella further. He asked him what would happen if it came to the last race of the season, and if swapping the driver’s positions would allow Lando to win the championship:
“If a concession from a driver ultimate does lead you to win the championship, then I think this would make sense for Oscar as well, and then it’s fair to Oscar as well and it does comply with our principles.”
So it’s clear that there’s not one simple team order in place that would mean Oscar always has to concede position to Lando. McLaren are instead going to review each scenario as it occurs and try and maintain their position on sportsmanship as much as possible, by allowing the driver with the best performance to be rewarded. Oscar backed this up:
“The main one is that if we feel that someone has done a much better job on a weekend, whichever way it is, we want that person to be rewarded and that is of course where it becomes a bit tricky still and we need to continue discussing that.”
Lando wants to win on merit
What has become clear is that Lando doesn’t want to be gifted a championship. Whilst he’s evidently grateful for McLaren announcing their bias towards him in those 50-50 calls, he wants to win on the track:
“If a driver is doing better than me and performing, I need to do a better job, so I wouldn’t want to take that away from someone.
“I also don’t want to be given a championship. Yes, it would be great to have a championship, and on the short term you feel amazing, but I don’t think you’d be proud of that in the long run.
“That’s not something I want, that’s not how I want to win a championship. I want to win it by fighting against Max, by beating Max, beating my competitors, and proving that I’m the best on track. And that’s how I want to win.”
Too little too late?
With just 8 races left in this year’s championship and Lando facing a 62 point defecit to Max, McLaren might have already missed the boat on giving Norris the best chance possible of winning the title. Even so, their newest take on team orders is still not firm.
Oscar has already shown that he’s a world-class driver. If he consistently out-drives Lando for the rest of the races and is ahead of him on track, would it be right for him to give up position on every one of those occasions in favour of his teammate? I don’t think it would, and as Lando has already said, that’s not how he wants to win a title.
The greatest F1 World Champions have all dominated on track. Lando needs to do the same if he wants to have a shot of winning this title on merit.
If he can repeat his performance at Zandvoort, consistently be the faster of the two McLaren drivers and keep ahead of Oscar on track then McLaren won’t have to worry about team orders. It’s time for Lando to prove he’s got what it takes.
