The 2024 Dutch Grand Prix witnessed McLaren securing their first victory on the circuit since 1985, as Lando Norris controlled the race in a commanding manner after taking the lead back from Max Verstappen on lap 18 and winning by a whopping margin of 22.896 seconds. Norris managed to claw back eight points as the chase for the drivers’ championship is heating up with nine races to go. The Dutchman still has a considerable lead of seventy points, which leaves McLaren in a sensitive position going forward with a pair of extremely competent and competitive drivers.
During his post-race media session, team principal Andrea Stella was asked how he was planning to handle the contentious issue of team orders, as Norris has a realistic shot at the title.
He disclosed that they have always had conversations about team orders going into a race in order to manage the competitiveness between drivers with transparency. However, he also specified that these conversations would take the current standings into account moving forward.
Stella was part of Michael Schumacher’s group as a performance engineer during the glory years at Ferrari, and there was more than one occasion when team orders caused uproar.
“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.
“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.
Stella offered further clarification that they seek to maintain a sense of fairness and offer equal support to both drivers based on their performance on track. He surmised that the rivalry might take an unpleasant turn if one driver is completely sacrificed in favour of the other, with a significant number of races left on the calendar.
“In general, our approach is to be fair, to have, like we say, integrity in the way we go racing. And I keep saying that I’ve known no driver that wants to be number one out of 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 you have eight good weekends, and it’s a weekend in which you are struggling a little bit, then the team can assist, right? But there’s no driver that, like, we have nine races ahead of us, and we create a number one driver, and then what do we do? All the favours to the number one driver? This is not a healthy way of running a team.
The 53-year-old Italian added that McLaren intends to evaluate every race independently and offer Norris additional assistance in fifty-fifty situations. At the same time, they hope to be reasonable towards Piastri and take collective decisions regarding the team’s prospects this season.
“But for every race, we will analyse the situations, and in the 50-50 situations, or in those cases in which, in this case, Lando may need a bit of extra support from the team, we are going to give it, but the team includes Oscar.
“Like, the team should not do things that don’t look reasonable to Oscar. We are in this together. You don’t go, a team and a driver, and the other driver kind of follows, despite him. He needs to be part of this conversation, and he needs to be in agreement with what we think is the way forward.”
If the Woking-based outfit wants to clinch both titles this year, the pit wall cannot put a foot wrong in the upcoming races. The team orders controversy that cast a shadow over Piastri’s maiden win at the Hungarian Grand Prix demonstrated that keeping two extremely quick young talents—who are fairly evenly matched—content, can be a challenging task. Whether McLaren can assist Norris in his title charge without isolating Piastri remains to be seen.
