McLaren’s Andrea Stella is a diplomatic man who is rightly earning the plaudits for overseeing the team’s substantial improvement over the past 20 months.
A steady hand on the tiller, Stella is a key factor behind McLaren’s transformation and until now, has comfortably rowed down the middle in terms of siding with his drivers, maintaining an impressive degree of harmony and diplomacy.
But as the team moves into the second half of the season there is now a chance, albeit a slim one, for them to win both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship titles.
Despite what Norris thinks, saying after his win in the Dutch Grand Prix it was “pretty stupid” to think about winning this year’s drivers’ title given Max Verstappen’s 70-point advantage in the championship, the reality is Norris is in this battle.
Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said Norris’s victory was “alarming” both from their team – and Verstappen’s – perspective, with the reigning world champion now without a win in five races. For the first time since winning the title in 2021, he looks vulnerable and no longer assured of a solid haul of points at each race.
However, for the time being, at least, Stella is reluctant to put all McLaren’s eggs in one basket and prioritise Norris’s end to the season over Piastri.
After Norris’s victory in Zandvoort, he explained his reasoning at length and with a refreshing amount of openness and said: “We always have conversations around team orders – from race one. Because you always want to enter a race having clarity as to how we are going to manage the internal competition between the two drivers.
Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing, Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, Andrea Stella, Team Principal, McLaren F1 Team, the McLaren team celebrate victory
Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
“So the conversations about team orders happen throughout the season, but then you have to take this conversation within the context of what is, for instance, the driver’s classification.
“In general, our approach is to be fair, to have integrity in the way we go racing and I keep saying that I’ve known no driver that wants to be number one on a contract.
“Drivers want to be number one because they are fast on track and then when you are fast on track, definitely, you want to be supported by the team, when it’s a 50/50 decision or when the team can assist.
“We have nine races ahead of…
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