Telling Andrea Stella words explain McLaren hesistancy over Lando Norris No.1 role

As more and more minutes tick by since Charles Leclerc, not a McLaren car, crossed the line first, more and more questions have been raised as to why McLaren did what they did.

The weekend was a net gain. Lando Norris reduced the lead to Max Verstappen by eight points, McLaren are 22 closer to Red Bull. But there is a lingering feeling of what more could have been achieved.

Why was Norris not given number one treatment? How can McLaren insist on sticking to their no number two driver principle? The answer is simple. Doing so would destroy their relationship with Piastri who, instead of Norris, could go on to be McLaren’s future.

Stella, nor Zak Brown, would ever admit it but when they see world titles in their future, it may well be Piastri on that top step.

38 races into his career, Piastri has a victory, sprint success and seven podiums to his name. It took Norris 29 races to experience his first trip to the top three steps, 110 before his first victory.

Yes it is a relative metric, the McLaren car of today is far greater than previous editions but ask any team principal, driver or pundit and they will all be surprised by just how quickly Piastri has become accustomed to life in F1, with plenty suggesting it was the best rookie season since another McLaren youngster – Lewis Hamilton.

Not to mention the less than ideal preparation he had leading into it. A year on the bench at Alpine was cut short as McLaren prised him away due to the French outfit’s hesitancy to offer him a new deal. The result was a guaranteed F1 seat for Piastri but at the cost of any more time in the Alpine car in 2022. Norris, meanwhile, drove a total of seven practice sessions in the season before his debut.

That McLaren were willing to not only deal with the legal headache of poaching Piastri – it took a decision from Formula 1’s Contract Recognition Board for the move to be confirmed – but also paying Daniel Ricciardo $18 million to break his deal early shows how much they backed the then 21-year-old.

Their decision was almost instantly gratified. The start of the 2023 season was dogged by an underwhelming car but Piastri’s first race with the full raft of upgrades saw him finish P4 at Silverstone.

Those upgrades are also an important point to highlight in that Piastri has been the dutiful team-mate to Norris. When McLaren rushed through the fixes in 2023, it was Norris that got them first in Austria with Piastri forced to wait an extra race. Even earlier this season, Piastri has fallen on his sword when it comes to strategy – most notably at Silverstone where the team opted to leave him out a lap longer than Norris as the rain began to fall. Put any other driver in Piastri’s shoes and he may well have snapped at the team’s decision to do that, but Piastri spoke with the mind of a driver far more experienced.

Cut to Hungary and Piastri’s fair overtake of Norris put the team in an awkward spot but one they did not help themselves with either. The result was Piastri’s first win leaving a sour taste in the mouth, a stark contrast to Norris’ maiden success in Miami.

All of this is to say that so far, Piastri has been a good team-mate to Norris – but what the whole world seemingly wants McLaren to do now would give Piastri a label that he may never well shake.

Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez and Rubens Barrichello are all able drivers but put alongside a World Champion, they have faded down to a rung below the elite. Think back through F1 history and has there been a driver who accepts being number two then goes on to win a world title? The act of doing so goes against the winners’ mentality that got these gifted drivers here in the first place.

So, fast forward to the Thursday before Monza and Piastri was clear he was unwilling to fall into that category.

“I’m still going into the weekends to try and win the races,” the Australian told media including PlanetF1.com in a hot Monza mixed zone.

“We are still behind in the Constructors’ championship and we want to make sure that we win that. My best contribution to that is by trying to win the race.

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“The gap is still very big between Lando and Max. And even for myself, it’s even bigger to Max, but it’s not impossible. So we’ll take it on a case-by-case basis every weekend.

“Of course, if the gap [between Norris and Verstappen] gets significantly smaller, and I’m not so much in the picture, then I’m aware that I could be called upon to try and help out.

“Ultimately, I want to go out and win races as well. But I know that if I do get called upon, then I’ll be happy to help out.”

So with eight races left, Piastri very much believes he is in with a chance and can you point to another driver on the grid who would be happy to step aside for their team-mate at that stage?

After the race, the main criticism of Piastri was that his overtake into Turn 4 could have resulted in both drivers crashing out but the reality is, they did not even make contact. This was not a Rosberg-Hamilton Barcelona incident or a Ricciardo-Verstappen Baku incident, instead it was a clean, if a little daring, overtake which is why the stewards did not even feel the need to give it a second look.

Zak Brown, appearing in front of the Sky Sports cameras, was interrogated by Nico Rosberg about McLaren’s hesitancy to label Norris the number one but show me a season where Rosberg accepted being number two to Hamilton.

Brown diplomatically said the ‘papaya rules’ would be looked into but it would be incredible if Piastri faced any kind of disciplinary action for a legal overtake on his team-mate who had left a gap. Doing so would set a dangerous precedent for what is expected by McLaren of their drivers.

McLaren, then, find themselves in an awkward spot of facing a barrage of criticism from the outside world but behind the papaya coloured doors, knowing they risk spoiling their relationship with a potential world champion of the future.

“We have to not forget that Oscar is in the middle of his second season in Formula 1,” Stella said from within McLaren’s motorhome, surrounded by the microphones of the world’s written media. “The future is Oscar’s.”

A time may well come that McLaren do give Norris preferential treatment, something Stella said would be a “massive boost” to Piastri as well but to do that now is clearly not an option the team have been willing to take.

So far, Stella has guided the McLaren ship masterfully and this opportunity to win both titles, something he admitted was now possible even without being asked, has come a season earlier than the team may have anticipated.

McLaren have a unique opportunity to do the double, something not achieved since the days of Hakkinen and Coulthard, but Stella must guide the team to that goal without risk to the man who may well be McLaren’s future.