Lando Norris sees no reason for McLaren to make him the team’s number one driver so it can boost his chances of beating Max Verstappen to the Formula 1 drivers’ championship.
The Briton is currently second in the standings, 76 points behind his Red Bull rival, with McLaren widely considered to have the most consistently fast car in F1 right now.
But the team orders controversy from the Hungarian Grand Prix, triggered by Norris delaying handing back the race lead to team-mate Oscar Piastri, has prompted some to suggest that McLaren should actually be throwing all its weight behind Norris.
That is because with Verstappen still having such an advantage in the points table, Norris needs every point he can get – and should not risk having a shot at the title compromised by team-mate Piastri finishing ahead of him.
But that is a situation that Norris disagrees with, as he thinks the best approach is one that McLaren has adopted: allowing both its drivers to go out there and race on equal terms.
“I still need to earn it, I still need to go out there and drive quicker than everyone,” he said. “I don't think that changes anything.
“I don't know why it is now the point, all of a sudden, where you would have a bias over one? We've never had the bias in the team."
But despite the growing reality of a championship shot for Norris making the team orders debate more relevant, he thinks it is far too early to think of changing the team’s approach.
“Why now all of a sudden do I have a chance?” he said. “I've had a chance the whole season and we're only halfway through. We've got a hell of a long way to go. So maybe a little bit further down the line [the approach can change], but that time is to be decided.”
Norris also felt it would be wrong to link what happened in Hungary to the world championship situation – because the Hungaroring events were purely about protecting race positions.
“I shouldn't have led the race and people should never have then had the perception the team is not biased towards Lando,” he said.
“If Oscar was leading the whole race there's absolutely zero reason why they should ask him to suddenly let me pass, if you're thinking of it from a championship point of view."
Piastri backed Norris’s view that it was far too early to be considering any idea of team orders, even though he accepted that somewhere down the road McLaren could be in a situation where it made sense to throw weight behind one driver.
“We're still very early in the season and I'm a long way behind in the driver's standings, but I'm also not out of it,” he said.
“It doesn't take that many races to be in the same position that Lando's in. Let's see how it plays out.
“If they need me to be a team player and try and help Lando, then of course I'll do that. But I think the biggest thing is trying to score the most points of all the teams and win the constructors'.
"I think that's definitely the biggest opportunity we have and we'll see if this happens as well.”
