Piastri’s supporting role is “more or less” over as Norris’s title hopes fade · RaceFans

Oscar Piastri says he is unlikely to be called upon to play a supporting role to his team mate over the remaining races of 2024.

The McLaren driver handed victory in the sprint race at the last round over to Lando Norris, in order to help his efforts to win the drivers’ championship.

However Norris lost significant ground to championship leader Max Verstappen in the grand prix the following day. Norris arrives in Las Vegas for this weekend’s race needing to out-score Verstappen just to avoid the title being decided on Saturday.

With McLaren still needing to consolidate their advantage over Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, Piastri said his time as in the number two role is therefore “more or less” over.

“We still need to discuss some things, but it’s very, very specific scenarios now where I would be helping out,” he told the official F1 channel.

“I’ve always been free to do the best job I can. Brazil was, of course, a time where we swapped things around. But this is the only time we’ve had to do that in the last five races.

“So I know I’m going into the weekend free to qualify as best as I can and race as best as I can. If there’s specific scenarios then potentially I might still need to help out, but they’re very, very specific scenarios now. For me it’s all about just trying to achieve the best result I can for myself, which will naturally help the team.”

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McLaren, who last won the constructors’ championship in 1998, lead Ferrari by 36 points with 147 available over the final three rounds. Norris said their approach to the final races would change little, as swapping the running order of their drivers never cost McLaren any points in the constructors’ championship.

“We’ve never done something that harmed the team,” he said. “I feel like people think we do.

“Everything we’ve done, we’ve just swapped a position. It’s not hurt us, so it’s not benefited us. It benefited me because I was in the fight for the championship and that’s the game we also have to play, just as I’ve helped Oscar in a few occasions and helped him win in Baku. I did my job there.

“But I think Andrea [Stella, team principal] made it very clear from the beginning that we would never do something that would make the team result worse. So nothing is going to change.”