Oscar Piastri’s engineer warns McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen’s 2007 title repeat over team order saga
With Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris performing on a similar level, team orders by McLaren are necessary owing to their experiences in 2007.
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Lando Norris,Oscar Piastri and Kimi Raikkonen, images via IMAGO and Independent
McLaren have a comfortable lead in the constructor’s standings, their tale on the driver’s side has been not so successful. Lando Norris is the nearest competitor to Max Verstappen in the driver’s standings, but Oscar Piastri has often outscored the Brit during races. Subsequently, the Australian’s race engineer Tom Stallard urged the Woking-based outfit to calm down this developing rivalry as McLaren has suffered a championship loss in 2007 to Kimi Raikkonen in a similar way.
As the 2024 season has progressed, McLaren realized that they have a car to take the championship fight to Red Bull. With Lando Norris being ahead of Oscar Piastri in the driver’s standings, experts understood that the English team would give preference to Norris. However, McLaren retained their equal driver treatment until quite some way into the championship, which reminded people of the 2007 saga between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
Moreover, the shenanigans between Hamilton and Alonso helped Ferrari‘s Kimi Raikkonen to clinch the title despite having a slim outside chance. With the similarities lining up, alarm bells starting ringing in Woking and Piastri’s race engineer Tom Stallard explained why team orders are necessary to avoid a repeat of 2007.
So, not that there has to be a tit for tat within that, but simply that there have been plenty of examples of Formula 1 teams where the two drivers just rip strips off each other for the whole season, and then at the end of it, Kimi Raikkonen wins.
Tom Stallard said on Beyond The Grid podcast
On the other hand, the 23-year-old’s work as a team player was witnessed during the Brazilian GP weekend. Piastri handed over a comfortable Sprint win to Norris to help the Brit in his title fight to Max Verstappen.
Oscar Piastri’s manager took a jibe at Lando Norris being given the Sprint victory
With Piastri handing over his victory, people understood the reasoning behind why the driver swap happened. However, the Aussie’s manager, Mark Webber, who has played the role of a No.2 driver earlier in his career looked at what happened in Brazil, and did not spare the Norris camp by making stark remarks.
The former F1 driver asserted that Norris’ win during the Sprint was not more than a charity victory.
Oscar was magnanimous in giving that position up, and then also for the championship it helps they get the one-two. Of course, that’s crucial for McLaren as well. So the result was good for the team and great for Lando. Obviously, with Lando having to get a little bit of a charity victory it’s all part of the sport.
Mark Webber said via Channel 4
Despite Piastri’s sacrifice in Sao Paulo, the Englishman had a torrid race on Sunday(Grand Prix). He conceded points to Verstappen and is now on the verge of getting out of contention for the title at the next race in Las Vegas. If he does not outscore the Dutchman by at least three points during the weekend, the McLaren driver would be out of the title race with two Grand Prix weekends to spare.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(772 Articles Published)