McLaren CEO Zak Brown has said the team’s current state of ‘papaya rules’ is still to help Lando Norris, but when asked if Oscar Piastri’s team think he is still in with a chance of the title, they “definitely” believe so.
Piastri took victory last time out in Azerbaijan to narrow the gap to Norris to 32 points in the standings, with Max Verstappen a further 59 ahead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship at this stage.
McLaren address current state of ‘papaya rules’ as Singapore GP approaches
In reiterating the team’s stance of ‘papaya rules’ being that the McLaren duo should “race your team-mate hard but cleanly”, Brown explained that the Woking-based squad are going to continue to support Norris where they can, without hindering Piastri’s own progress.
With seven rounds and three Sprints to go, he admitted there is a balance to be struck, however.
“I was actually watching something that Ron Dennis was talking about back in the MP4 era, and it was the team’s job to win the Constructors’ Championship and the driver’s job to win the Drivers’ Championship. So that’s what we’re doing,” Brown explained on Sky Sports F1.
“But anything we can now do to help Lando, we’ll do that, whether that’s strategically – we don’t want to obviously compromise Oscar’s results, because he’s having an awesome season and has a battle of his own – but if there’s things that we can do that support Lando, that’s what we’ll do.
“We’re taking it on kind of a race-by-race basis, but we’ve got two great drivers that are capable of winning races, so it’s a fine line.”
All you need to know ahead of the Singapore GP this weekend
When pressed and asked if the two drivers would be asked to swap positions if Piastri is leading and Norris is behind, though, Brown replied: “Ultimately, that will be Andrea [Stella]’s call. I think handing off a race win is a pretty difficult thing to do, so you kind of have to look at the circumstances.
“I think that’s a pretty big ask of a Grand Prix driver, and I think Lando wants to win the championship if he can the right way.
“We still have a lot of racing to go, have to look at the circumstances, but I think if Oscar goes out and earns it, I’m not sure Lando wants to inherit a victory that way anyway.”
Though Brown said that Norris is set to retain advantage in any marginal calls for now, albeit with the team operating on a round-by-round basis, the question was put to him by Martin Brundle about whether ‘Team Oscar’ believes that Piastri is still within reach of his own title challenge.
“Mathematically, definitely,” replied the McLaren CEO.
“I think he’s 30 or so points behind Lando, I think the gap between Lando and Max is going to require some pretty awesome weekends, and maybe a little bit of bad luck here and there.
“But one of the challenges is you’re not looking at a driver that’s too far back from Lando.
“He’s kind of one weekend away from kind of being on Lando’s points, so that’s why we’ve got to take it one race at a time.
“You know, what are the circumstances of the situation? If it’s running at the front and Max has had a DNF, so it’s a big points haul, that’s maybe one scenario, if we’re first and second, Max is running third…time starts ticking, then that’s another scenario. So that’s why I think we’ll make the call live.”
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