McLaren is looking at ways it can adjust aspects of the way it approaches race weekends in tandem with Lando Norris to help give him a better chance of challenging Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship.
Norris failed to convert pole position in Monza into a victory, finishing behind race-winner Charles Leclerc and teammate Oscar Piastri. Piastri taking points off Norris brought the rumbles about team orders even more ot the fore after Italy, but team principal Andrea Stella believes there are other areas that the team and Norris can look at.
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“Both drivers are mathematically in condition to [win the title], but Lando is obviously in the best position from a numbers point of view,” Stella said. “We are fighting Max Verstappen, so I think if we want to give support to one driver, we certainly have to pick the one who is in the best position.
“Also, I think Lando has been doing very well. Pole position in Zandvoort, pole position [in Monza]… If anything, with Lando we need to adjust some little racing things which may help him, help us, capitalize on pole position like we had in Monza. If you look at his first lap, while we review it together, we might see there were a couple of things we could have done better.”
After Verstappen failed to record a victory in the last six races and finished a distant sixth in Monza, the championship leader said that winning both titles looks unrealistic based on Red Bull’s current form. Stella suggested this is an attempt to shift the pressure onto McLaren, but acknowledged that the team needs to take full advantage of Red Bull’s struggles.
“Max is good also with his tongue! Not only good on track,” he said. “Obviously he knows that the car is driving at the moment seems to provide him with some challenges, but we need to be better at capitalizing on the opportunity that Red Bull, at the moment, seems to offer by not being in the usual possibility of competing for podiums.
“It’s definitely a worthwhile exercise to review the specifics, not only of the entire race, but even on the first lap, because I hope we will be in the condition to have these situations frequently in the future – it means the two McLarens will start from the front of the grid. But we need to make sure that this is the best for the team and the best for Lando.”