Oscar Piastri has “no interest” in Lando Norris winning the World title nor will it excite him if his team-mate achieves the feat, but that doesn’t mean he won’t “help out” if called upon.

But doing anything but help at the Italian Grand Prix, Martin Brundle admits he admires the Aussie’s “killer instinct” attitude.

McLaren had ‘perfect team play’, until they didn’t

Piastri lined up on the Monza grid in second place having missed out on pole position by a tenth of a second to his team-mate Norris. But it was the Hungarian Grand Prix winner who was leading at the end of Lap 1.

Although Norris made a good start off the line to lead the way through the first chicane, McLaren’s “papaya rules” in play as the team-mates kept it clean, Piastri attacked into the second chicane and not only took the lead but compromised Norris enough that Charles Leclerc also snuck through.

Racing first and second for much of the Grand Prix, Norris was told he could “race” his team-mate for the lead but to remember those “papaya rules”.

But with Ferrari adopting a one-stop strategy for Leclerc, it was the Scuderia who claimed the race win ahead of a McLaren 2-3 headed by Piastri.

The telling McLaren F1 2024 team-mate stats

????F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

????F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

For Brundle, it was “perfect team play” off the line, right up until the moment it wasn’t.

However, the former F1 driver turned pundit says he “admires” Piastri’s “killer instinct” even if it cost Norris three points in his fight against Max Verstappen.

“This looked like perfect team play from the two McLaren boys covering all the road and exiting the danger zone comfortably first and second. But that didn’t last long,” he wrote in his Sky F1 column.

“Norris was cautious on the brakes into the second chicane and Piastri sliced down the outside of him. Norris quickly released the brakes, but Piastri stuck with it around the outside and claimed the lead as they almost touched.

“Norris slid a little sideways which gave him a slow exit and Charles Leclerc wasted no time right up against the grass to seize second place going towards the first Lesmo corner.

“Piastri clearly has no interest in Norris’ World Championship chances against Max Verstappen, which we’d already witnessed in Hungary when he firmly seized the lead in the first corner.

“The racer in me admires this attitude. That’s why Piastri won championships and ended up in a race-winning F1 car. The last thing which will excite him is Norris becoming World Champion in the same car.

“That doesn’t mean he won’t help out at some point, and indeed that he hasn’t helped out here and there already, but that racer’s mentality and killer instinct is all important.

“I remember saying in commentary in Hungary, if the roles had been reversed, would Piastri have handed Norris the lead back, and I really don’t know the answer. I do know that many ruthless and selfish World Champions I’ve raced against wouldn’t have.”

“Norris is 62 points behind Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship,” added Brundle. “That could have been 52 if McLaren had insisted Piastri yielded recently.

“They didn’t want to do that, and they feel Norris doesn’t necessarily want to win a championship by having a compliant wingman, but it will be interesting to see what happens next if they really want to apply pressure to Red Bull and Max.”

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