YAS MARINA, Abu Dhabi – Lando Norris said McLaren asking Oscar Piastri to help his title bid on Sunday would “not be a fair question” in the team’s bid to stop Max Verstappen snatching the title from under their noses, although he suggested he would be fine doing the same if roles were reversed.
Norris leads Red Bull driver Verstappen by 12 points and McLaren teammate Piastri by 16 going into Sunday’s championship showdown.
Norris only needs to finish third or higher to win the title, while he can also claim the title with fourth if Verstappen also does not win the race.
McLaren has insisted neither driver will be asked to help the other while mathematically in the hunt, but one hypothetical scenario has raised speculation about what the team would do.
Were Verstappen winning the race, with Piastri third and Norris fourth, the Red Bull driver would win the championship in that circumstance — but Norris would win if Piastri let him by again for third.
When asked what would happen in that circumstance, Norris said: “No, not been discussed. Honestly, I mean, I would love it! But I don’t think I would ask it because … I don’t know … It’s up to Oscar if he would allow it, you know. I don’t think it’s necessarily down to me.”
Piastri, sat alongside Norris in the press conference, smirked as the British driver answered the question.
While the two of them have had a harmonious relationship this season there has been ongoing speculation about the team’s commitment to the policy dubbed ‘Papaya Rules’, the racing rules McLaren uses to let its drivers fight as freely as possible.
The only clear deviation from Papaya Rules this year was when McLaren asked Piastri to move over to let Norris by for second at the Italian Grand Prix after the latter had a botched pit-stop in the final laps, a request which he reluctantly accepted.
An interesting moment followed in Norris’ answer, as he then hinted that he would have no issue helping Piastri win the title if the circumstance arose.
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“It’s the same if it’s the other way around. Would I be willing to or not?” Norris continued. “Personally, I think I would just because I feel like I’m always like that and that’s just how I am. But it’s not really up to me and I’m not going to ask it [of Piastri].
“I don’t want to ask it because I don’t think it’s necessarily a fair question. And at the same time, if that’s how it ends and Max wins, then, well, that’s it. Congrats to him and I look forward to next year.
“It doesn’t change anything [if Verstappen wins], it doesn’t change my life. So, he will deserve it over us.”
The question, from Sky Sports F1 journalist Rachel Brookes, had originally been posed to Norris.
When FIA press conference moderator Tom Clarkson then asked Piastri as a follow-up whether he would obey a request to move over, the Australian laughed and said: “Rachel asked it to Lando!”
After a pause, he said: “It’s not something we’ve discussed. So, yeah, I mean, until I know what’s kind of expected, I don’t really have an answer until I know what’s expected of me.”
McLaren boss Andrea Stella said the team orders issue would be disussed as a priority after the Qatar Grand Prix, where the team’s calamitous strategy blunder brought Verstappen to the brink of the most unlikely of title wins.
Company CEO Zak Brown said earlier this year he would rather see Verstappen snatch the title away from his drivers than deviate away from the policy of allowing them to race freely and fairly.
George Russell, when asked the same question in a separate media session, said it would not be “fair, acceptable or reasonable” to expect Piastri to be ordered out of his way to aid Norris’s world championship bid.
“I don’t think it is acceptable or reasonable to ask a driver who is in with a shot of winning the championship in the very last race to move over for your teammate,” Russell said. “It would not be fair.
“They both need to have a shot and if they miss out because of it, you just need to say the other driver [Verstappen] did a better job.
“In other seasons gone by, let’s say if it was Checo [Perez] and Max at Red Bull, or [Rubens] Barrichello or [Michael] Schumacher at Ferrari – when one driver is clearly going for the championship in the final race and the other is not in contention – then I think that is reasonable to ask.”
Information from PA contributed to this report.
