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In the context of a would-be Formula 1 drivers’ championship bid for Lando Norris, the wrong McLaren keeps finishing ahead.
That’s a more immediate problem for Norris than it is for McLaren, which will hardly mind that Oscar Piastri won so brilliantly in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix given it vaulted the team above Red Bull to lead the constructors’ standings for the first time in a decade.
Team boss Andrea Stella even seemed to recognise the irony that in the first race after McLaren decided to impose team orders to support Norris’s would-be title bid, Norris ended up playing a key role in helping Piastri win.
But the juxtaposition between the ambition that McLaren and Norris share, and the reality in the team and on the track, is striking. Norris needs to score as many points as possible but, for various reasons (not all Norris’s own doing by any means), his own team-mate is consistently taking points off him. And that is only going to make it harder for McLaren as it walks a team orders tightrope.
Baku marked the fourth time in five races that Piastri has finished ahead, and this reveals an uncomfortable reality. Norris would benefit points-wise from having a passive wingman as a team-mate, and McLaren would have a nice easy time not worrying about team orders in that case: Norris would be ahead more often than not, and Piastri would know his place if McLaren did need to orchestrate a switch or call off an attack.
Norris doesn’t want that. That is important to understand. But the championship is a numbers game, and he needs to be racking up massive scores to catch Max Verstappen. So it’s understandable that working out how to help Norris is becoming a bigger McLaren priority. It’s just awkward that it’s happening right as Piastri’s emphatically stepping out from Norris’s shadow.
It’s taken less than two seasons for Piastri to prove he’s not going to be a number two driver. He’s too good to be a back-up. He’s an increasingly impressive driver looking ever more at ease at the front in F1 and demonstrating a killer instinct that makes him a real force to be reckoned with in his own right.
It’s been a key part of McLaren’s surge to the top of the constructors’ standings and it has rightly been noticed. McLaren knows what Piastri is capable of, but his exceptional move on Charles Leclerc to grab the lead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix surpassed even Stella’s high expectations.
It was not the first time Piastri has taken vital opportunities to transform his race outcome. There are other great recent examples: the first corner in Hungary against Norris and Verstappen, and the opening lap in Italy against Norris.
Some might argue that given this includes hard moves on his own team-mate, it is something to be frowned upon and means he’s taking bigger risks than Norris. But it was all fair game at the time and, if anything, demonstrated a ruthlessness that is a defining trait of the very best drivers.
So, what does McLaren do? Clearly, it doesn’t just give up on Norris. He is stronger in qualifying and has hit higher peaks, like his awesome Zandvoort weekend. The core metrics are still in Norris’s favour, and with his speed and the advantage of experience, his absolute best is a fraction higher than Piastri's still. In the first half of the year, Piastri was clearly trailing at a few races: Japan, China and Spain, for example. And it was similar in the Netherlands but not as pronounced.
It’s shifting, too. Piastri’s had stand-out moments of his own, and is starting to look like he might be the more dependable of the two in certain situations. He’s produced his best more consistently than Norris in recent races, has generally improved his tyre management, and is not only making fewer mistakes in crunch moments but also being brilliantly decisive at swinging things his way on race day.
Norris is ahead of Piastri in the championship but – whether it’s his own small errors, or the team’s, or just plain bad luck like in Baku – is only trying to contend for the title itself. And Piastri’s a lot closer to Norris than Norris is to Verstappen. At this rate, it’s likely to stay that way by Abu Dhabi.
In the three races since the summer break, Piastri and Norris have both scored 55 points. Only Leclerc has scored more in that time. Stretch that to the last five races, since Piastri scored his first win in Hungary, and Piastri’s outscored everybody. Go all the way back to Imola in May, it’s the same story.
Of course, it’s not as simple as ‘if Norris had Piastri’s form he’d be catching Verstappen much quicker’. And you have to be blind to the facts to think Norris could have done anything else in Azerbaijan. While Norris has not been perfect, the degree to which his performances are being undervalued and his season is being outright mocked among most polarising F1 ‘fans’ is absent of any meaningful scrutiny or understanding.
But it is fair to point out that Norris isn’t quite realising the superior points return you would expect given his ability and his greater experience. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner actually jumped at the chance to claim McLaren’s paying Norris “five times” his team-mate’s salary and he should therefore be its biggest asset.
While that’s a bit of an oversimplification of the matter (and probably a deflection tactic given Red Bull's own problems) there’s some truth there. And Piastri is definitely becoming a larger factor. Were he not performing so well, McLaren wouldn’t have to worry about giving its drivers equal opportunities while working out how to prioritise Norris where possible without just gifting him wins.
Norris hasn’t handled the pressure perfectly and admits he’s not driven at a level worthy of winning the championship this year. Combined with Piastri’s trajectory, some in the paddock and maybe even internally at McLaren are wondering if Piastri’s the driver with the highest ultimate potential. There certainly haven’t really been the same question marks over Piastri’s temperament as there have for Norris.
Piastri is ice-cool and his rising reputation for being somewhat unflappable reflects a genuine robustness. They are in different situations. Norris must win every weekend if he is to force his way into the title reckoning and is operating under a harsher spotlight. In that sense, Piastri has the ‘easier’ job of the two. But you can counter that by pointing out the gap in experience.
Ultimately, having both drivers at such a level is brilliant for McLaren’s main championship bid - which is still the constructors', in which it's just taken a lead that would've seemed impossible four months ago.
But it is at least slightly awkward that Norris isn’t guaranteed to be the number one performing McLaren driver on any given weekend, as while he doesn’t want that status manufactured for him (and he won’t always need it anyway) it will be a factor in the run-in.
Norris can still win several more races before the end of 2024: the car's quick enough, and Norris is certainly good enough. He might render the team orders debate moot himself. And exactly how this is resolved over the next few grands prix is an extremely intriguing prospect.
Does Norris unleash more Zandvoort-level weekends, or does Piastri’s stock rise further? The answer will have a big impact on how difficult the final races are for McLaren to handle – and will surely influence the foundation of this internal dynamic going into 2025, too.
