McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said they did not consider imposing orders on their drivers during the Austrian Grand Prix sprint race.
Oscar Piastri started the race behind team mate Lando Norris but overtook him to finish second. The pair were unable to pass eventual winner Max Verstappen and in the closing laps Norris was stuck behind his team mate.However Stella said the team wouldn’t consider calling off a fight between its drivers at this stage in the championship.
“We will think about it later on,” Stella told the official F1 channel. “I think Oscar gained his position, he deserved [it] because he did a good manoeuvre.
“Somehow Lando opened the door, but it’s all racing, and if we need to influence this racing, we will do it later on. I think it’s just too early.”
McLaren arrived in Austria with Norris second in the championship, 69 points behind Verstappen. Piastri was sixth in the standings going into today’s race, 132 points off the lead. In the constructors’ championship, McLaren took six points off Red Bull, and are now 89 behind them.
The team’s drivers applied pressure to Verstappen early in the race and Norris was briefly able to get ahead. But as the tyres degraded they were no long able to get close enough to attack.
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“It was the same in Barcelona when Max was in condition to attack Russell at the start of the race, and then Lando actually was stuck behind,” Stella explained.
“When you have this transition from the tyres from the start to stabilisation, I think there’s more variability as to where you are with grip and you have more options, in terms of how you use the tyres, or how you, to some extent, abuse the tyres a little bit.
“Also the drivers, the first couple of laps, higher fuel, there’s just more variation. But after three or four laps, I feel things tend to settle. So that’s why we see more action at the start of the stint or in particular, the start of the first stint.”
Piastri said he hoped to pass both Norris and Verstappen when the Red Bull driver reclaimed the lead from his rival at turn four. “I could see that they were battling quite hard and into turn four I saw the move was quite late, and I knew that there’d be an opportunity on the exit,” he said.
“I was hoping I would get both but I was just biding my time and tried my best. I think I had probably one opportunity to try and get Max the lap after but just didn’t quite have the pace after that. So being patient at the start paid of a bit.”
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2024 Austrian Grand Prix
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stefano (@alfa145)
29th June 2024, 14:12
it was not much a matter of team orders as it was a matter of trying to catch and overtake Verstappen, possibly with both cars before he sailed away, the first McLaren backing him off into the other. missed chance.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
29th June 2024, 14:24
A case of no one in the team wanting to make the hard call. The team could have gotten a better result if Norris was allowed to attack without fear of being attacked himself.
They had a choice, hamper one driver or hamper both. For reasons unknown they chose to hamper both.
José Lopes da Silva
29th June 2024, 16:53
It’s not unknown. This is the team of Senna and Prost. This is the team of Hamilton and Alonso. This is the circuit where 25 years ago this team’s Coulthard punted this team’s Hakkinen in that same now-Turn-3, starting a cascade of events that elevated Irvine to the status of a title contender (!) and gave us a very fortunate season that otherwise was effectively terminated after Silverstone.
This is also the team that contributed with 2 of the 4 title contenders of 2010.
It’s in the DNA of Formula 1 that McLaren refuses to issue team orders for the championship. Please don’t change that.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th June 2024, 14:30
They can’t have taken off 6 points from red bull, 8+1 vs 6+7, that’s 4 points difference.
BasCB (@bascb)
29th June 2024, 14:35
I actually think there was no good reason to change the cars around after that. As Norris mentioned after the race, they knew they had to do it in the first few laps. Since he let himself be repassed by Max and then Piastri got by too, that was it. Maybe if Piastri had not been able to get by, Norris would have been able to stay close enough to Max to have a shot right at the end, but it would probably have been just running close to him like he was now chasing Piastri.
And let’s remember this is a sprint, where the difference between 2 and 3rd is only a single point, for the team there was no difference at all, so why would you upset Piastri by asking him to give up a place he earned on track.
Stephen Taylor
29th June 2024, 14:43
I don’t think putting team order out was neccessary. Lando’s 2024 title hopes are very slim at best anyway if they were ever real in the first place. That said I cannot help but feel that Max would still be the championship even if Lando was in the Red Bull and he was in the McLaren . Max would be winning McLaren the title in that car
Edvaldo
29th June 2024, 16:11
“too early” for what? It’s not for the championship, it’s for wins. The championship is done.
Piastri is SLOW in races, he just stays in the way. It already happened way too many times already. Not even with a 30 sec head start you can guarantee he’ll finish a race ahead of Norris.
He needs to improve on his pace, until then, Mclaren should settle for the best shot they can get, and turns out, their best shot is Norris, every single time.
RandomMallard
29th June 2024, 18:00
Probably P2 in the championship, which Norris holds just a 6 point lead over Leclerc for.
Edvaldo
29th June 2024, 18:28
If that’s the issue, then they should’ve inverted the cars because Piastri has about half the points Norris has.
They can easily do the typical “let him try and if he doesn’t do it, he’ll let you by later”.
Because Piastri won’t try anything. One and a half seasons already, a full year with a top car (since Austria 2023 Mclaren has been as good if not better than Mercedes and Ferrari), it’s time to step up.
BMW P85 V10
29th June 2024, 19:58
Qatar 2023, being one of those exception that make the difference.
Nick T.
29th June 2024, 16:54
What championship? The WDC is over. And if they really thought they were competing for it, they can’t start soon enough because the margin is absolutely massive. So, this makes no sense.
For all those saying he should have been let past, why? If he had so much more speed in his back pocket, he would have been all over Piastri right away. Don’t get me wrong, I know Norris is way faster in races than Oscar, but this was a sprint and he seemed to have lost momentum after his mistake. He had no shot of catching Max without DRS. So, at that point, you let your drivers race.
RandomMallard
29th June 2024, 18:01
Lando is only 6 points ahead of Leclerc for P2 in the standings.
Nick T.
30th June 2024, 12:19
Oh, you mean the places no one cares about commercially and even barely as fans. Got it.
lynn-m
29th June 2024, 18:06
it’s a sprint race so nobody cares anyway.
like every other sprint race the result will be forgotten because they are completely pointless, irrelevant and forgettable.
i mean teams forget they have scored podiums in them and when was the last time mclaren or piastri raved about how he ‘won a race’?
nobody takes these horrid gimmicks seriously. they just don’t really matter and should be scrapped in favor of the far superior normal weekend format where the grand prix on sunday is the one and only race of the weekend!
José Lopes da Silva
29th June 2024, 19:15
I like sprint races.