McLaren got a kicking from several Formula 1 broadcasters last weekend for failing to impose team orders on their drivers at Monza.
For the second time in four rounds Lando Norris, who is the closest driver to points leader Max Verstappen, finished immediately behind his team mate on the road. Had McLaren swapped their cars around in those two races, Norris’ deficit would now be 52 points instead of 62.
Even presenters on the official F1 channel poured scorn on McLaren, insisting they were not being “smart” by refusing to tell Oscar Piastri to let Norris by. But one should always be prepared to allow for the possibility that the competitors are at least as smart as you are. And almost invariably better informed.
The logic of why McLaren should have swapped their drivers around is simple. After all, no one believes Red Bull would allow Sergio Perez to take points off Verstappen.
But that has rarely, if ever, been a consideration for Red Bull. Out of the 970 racing laps in grands prix so far this season, Perez has only been in front of Verstappen for 25. No other driver who has started more than one race has led their team mate so little, not even the recently-fired Logan Sargeant.
Still, if Red Bull team principal Christian Horner wanted a stronger rival to Verstappen in their second car he wouldn’t have handed Perez a new contract earlier this year. When Horner dispelled suggestions (partly inspired by his own comments) that Perez could be replaced during the summer break, Horner sent a clear message that Red Bull will sacrifice the constructors’ championship before they risk Verstappen’s crown.
So while Verstappen has led Perez for 97% of laps this year, Norris’ advantage over Piastri is just 69%. This is much closer to that seen at other front running teams: Russell has led Hamilton on 64% laps, Leclerc has led Sainz for 63%.
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Norris’ superiority over Piastri is nothing like as total as Verstappen’s over Piastri. This matters because once McLaren tell Piastri he is their ‘number two’ they will have crossed the Rubicon. Tell him to let Norris past once, and failing to do again over the rest of the season would become an obvious failure of leadership.
The question then becomes how many times might McLaren have to move Piastri out of the way? And might they end up doing it so frequently they start to look like they’ve backed the…
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