Lando Norris said he was not expecting teammate Oscar Piastri to gift him race wins despite McLaren’s decision to put the Briton first in the Formula One title battle with Max Verstappen.
Team principal Andrea Stella told the BBC ahead of Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix that McLaren wanted to support Norris “without too much compromise on our principles”.
Norris told reporters in Baku that the reset was more likely for lower positions rather than if they were running first and second.
“He’s still fighting for his own racing. He’s still going out and doing his stuff. And it could be that there’s no time this year that he needs to help me,” said the Briton. “It’s more that I’ve got Oscar’s help when needs be.
“If he’s fought for a win and he’s deserving of a win, then he deserves to win.
“If he goes out and he’s better than me, and performs better than me, and outqualifies me, and he wins a race, that’s because he’s done a better job.”
Norris is second overall and 62 points behind Red Bull’s triple world champion Verstappen with eight rounds remaining, plus three sprint races, while Piastri is fourth and 106 off the lead.
There are a maximum 232 points still to be won in the drivers’ championship.
McLaren are chasing both titles and could go top in the constructors’ standings in Baku, with the team only eight points behind once-dominant Red Bull.
Norris said it would hurt to miss out by a few points but he also did not want to be given a title.
“That’s not how I want to win a championship. I want to win it by fighting against Max, by beating Max, beating my competitors and proving that I’m the best on track,” he said. “And that’s how I want to win.”
Piastri said separately that while team orders were “not that fun” he realised there was a bigger picture.
“Of course, being selfish, I would prefer to not have it, but I’m very aware that it’s not just about me and I’m happy to play a supporting role at this point in the season,” added the Australian.
“I think any earlier in the season, it would have been probably excessive but I think now it’s an appropriate time to try and help the team win both championships.
“I think the main point is it’s not purely just going to be me pulling over for Lando every single race because that’s how none of us, including Lando, want to go racing.”
Stella said the team’s principles were that the team interest always comes first.
“Sportsmanship for us is important in the overall way we go racing. And then we want to be fair to both drivers,” the Italian told the BBC.
He said McLaren wanted to avoid a repeat of the situation in Monza where Norris lined up on pole position with Piastri second but ultimately lost out to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
In that race, Piastri overtook Norris at the second chicane with Leclerc seizing second place from the Briton, who had to slow, before winning on strategy. Verstappen finished only sixth.