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McLaren's decision to bias its handling of races towards Lando Norris and aid his outside Formula 1 title bid will be managed on a case-by-case basis rather than with specific rules.
Norris will receive preferential treatment over the remainder of 2024 as McLaren has asked team-mate Oscar Piastri to support Norris’s chase of Max Verstappen in the drivers' championship.
McLaren is still prioritising the constructors' championship having closed to just eight points behind Red Bull while Norris is 62 points adrift of Verstappen.
The long-shot nature of that title chance meant McLaren was not keen to sacrifice Piastri to help Norris, as it felt that carried too many complications and went against its policy of treating both drivers the same wherever possible. But Red Bull's stuttering form has prompted McLaren to revise that stance.
McLaren's superiority at Zandvoort and Monza, two vastly different tracks, combined with Red Bull looking increasingly vulnerable has made the team reconsider how likely it is Norris can catch Verstappen and believes it is now in its hands after all.
With eight races remaining, McLaren feels this is the right time to back Norris - as the circumstances have changed and there is still enough time for it to make differences.
"Selfishly, as a driver, team orders are not that fun, but I realise that there's a much bigger picture here than just myself," said Piastri.
"I'm happy to play a supporting role at this point of the season. Any earlier in the season, it would have been probably excessive, but now it's an appropriate time to try and help the team win both championships."
That reality prompted the conversations held with both drivers between Monza and this weekend's grand prix in Azerbaijan to address how McLaren will handle races going forward.
The decision has been made to prioritise Norris but how it will do that remains flexible.
NOT GUARANTEED EVERY WIN
The most telling part of McLaren's new policy is that it will not guarantee Norris every McLaren win to the end of the season. Norris made that very clear on Thursday in Baku.
Asked if Piastri will be moving aside if he is on course for victory and Norris is second, Norris said: “No.
"In general, [it's] probably for lower positions. But if he's fought for a win and he's deserving of a win, then he deserves to win."
Norris also said "no, probably not" when asked if he would expect Piastri to let him through if they were running first and second. This is believed to be because McLaren wants to let Piastri reap the rewards of a truly superior performance if he deserves it.
"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," Piastri said.
"And that's where it, of course, becomes a little bit tricky still and we need to continue discussing that."
It sounds counterintuitive given sacrificing a win is the single biggest points boost Piastri can give Norris. It would mean an extra seven points, the biggest points gap between positions by a long way; there are just three points between second and third, and third and fourth, and then just two points difference between each position down to a single point from ninth to 10th and 10th to (a non-scoring) 11th.
McLaren accepts that this means it may reach the end of the season and, on reflection, realise it has missed some opportunities to give Norris more points that could have made a crucial difference. But it would rather avoid treating Piastri as a number two at any cost. And Norris said he accepts that as it would mean he needs too much help to be champion anyway.
"I'm sure it will hurt," he said of the hypothetical of losing the title by a few points.
"I'm also here to race. If a driver is doing better than me, outperforming me, they're doing a better job. I wouldn't want to take that away from someone.
"I also don't want to be given a championship. It would be great to have a championship and short-term you'd feel amazing but I don't think you'd be proud of that in the long run.
"I want to win by fighting against Max, beating Max and my competitors and proving I'm the best on track."
NO MONZA REPEAT
One thing that would be different from Monza is that under the new agreement Piastri would be asked to move aside at the end to let Norris finish second.
Another is that Piastri will be expected not to do what he did on the opening lap, where he attacked Norris with a clean, aggressive move that earned him the lead - but also caused Norris to lose another position to Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
McLaren's analysis of that essentially concluded that what Piastri did was technically fine. It didn't break any rules at the time, he didn't take undue risk, and he didn't collide with Norris.
"In those circumstances, what I did was fine," Piastri said. "I thought it was a good move.
"Of course, the consequence of coming out of the corner first and third is not what we wanted as a team and of course it takes both of our co-operation to make sure that that result doesn't happen again.
"But in those circumstances, it was all by the book and there was nothing wrong with that."
But because of Piastri's overtake, the effort Norris made to minimise the risk of contact cost him the place to Leclerc. And McLaren cars emerged first and third instead of first and second.
Piastri admitted that "we did have a decent gap to the car in third and, just being honest, there was not many ways we could have done it to not be first and second, and we did so". So, from now on, "in those exact same scenarios, some things would be different".
That is understood to mean that while Piastri is not expected to avoid overtaking Norris at all costs (for example if Norris makes a mistake or has a problem), he will be expected to fall in line if he is not under immediate risk himself.
Norris said that they will be free to race but "there will be some times when it's just not smart to battle".
"If you go into lap one and that's on your mind, that's the wrong approach," he said.
"You've got to go into lap one with the right approach, to attack and try to go forward. When you start thinking about other things that's usually when it starts to go wrong.
"Monza was a slightly different case. And we've looked back at that and resolved that. From now on we're still fighting each other [on lap one] but then from that point on, we'll try to help one another."
WHY SO VAGUE?
McLaren is keeping the rules vague for two reasons.
Firstly, team boss Andrea Stella views policies like how the two cars should race each other as part of a team's "intellectual property". Giving away that information will provide valuable insight into what McLaren will do in each race: it is essentially handing over part of its race strategy.
Secondly, McLaren is aware that prescribing a single policy for every possible scenario the two drivers may find themselves in is a fool’s errand.
Trying to stage-manage the opening lap, for example, carries a lot of risk. And there might be different ways to handle different races. Swapping positions on-track might be easy on one occasion but strategically influencing things - by prioritising a Norris undercut for example - might work best another time.
McLaren wants to be able to judge each race situation individually and react accordingly.
"It still needs some more discussion, but I think the main point is it's not purely just going to be me pulling over for Lando every single race," said Piastri.
"Trying to go through all the scenarios is impossible, and of course we don't want to discuss that publicly."
Such vagueness can cause problems as it may lead to different interpretations, or simply trusting that Piastri will agree to a specific in-race order that has not been explicitly mapped out beforehand.
It almost shows how reluctant McLaren is to do this, and how much it wants to respect a policy of equal treatment and opportunity for both drivers.
PIASTRI'S LONG-TERM PLAY
One of the reasons Piastri is buying into this is obvious: he's realistically not in contention, even if mathematically it's possible and he is in good form. He's beaten Norris in three of the last four races after all.
But given he has not got anything to lose in terms of the championship, Piastri knows that the best long-term move here is to be a team player. If he adopts wingman status now he will have McLaren on side fully in the future and Norris will owe him.
Doing it this way, maybe even letting Piastri still have moments of glory, also minimises the chance of any psychological damage. Piastri knows he's the one doing Norris and McLaren a favour. He isn't being pummelled into submission.
"It is a big ask," Piastri said. "But they've obviously given me a massive opportunity to be in this position both in F1 and at the front of the grid in F1.
"It's something that won't be forgotten, I guess, in the future.
"I know that if it was the other way around then we would be having exactly the same discussions about Driver A or Driver B.
"It will be remembered in the future, and there's been things in the past, whether it be with upgrades or strategies in some races, that have always been remembered.
"That's kind of our way of going racing."
