Oscar Piastri played a supporting role for Lando Norris in recent races when he was in contention for the title, but his race engineer Tom Stallard explained how he has been “very positive in his support for the team “.

Piastri has strayed from Norris in recent marginal calls for team orders, including at the final round in Brazil when he gave up the sprint victory to his teammate, which Norris himself said he was “not proud of” at the time as part of the fight for the title.

Oscar Piastri ‘looking at the long game’ in supporting McLaren team

Stallard indirectly referred to the 2007 season at McLaren For an example of how drivers working against each other can be detrimental to the team, when Fernando Alonso and rookie Lewis Hamilton fought tooth and nail all season before the then Ferrari driver, Kimi Raikkonen ultimately won the World Championship with a single point lead. end of the year.

With that in mind, he said the young Australian was looking to the future and how he might one day be aided in his own title fight, if the shoe was on the other foot – while emphasizing the strong spirit of team that reigns at McLaren as long as it holds.

When asked how Piastri would handle team orders in the context of a battle for the World Championship, Stallard responded in a recent episode of Beyond the grid podcast: “I think there are two aspects to this. The first is that this team is really united and this team wants the best for the team.

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“The other thing I would say is if you are a driver who thinks about winning the drivers’ championship, you want to be part of a team that will support you to achieve that.

“So if you’re not willing to help the team get there when it’s the other guy, how do you expect the team to treat you when it’s you next time?

“So, not that it has to be tit for tat, but just that there have been many examples of Formula 1 teams where both drivers have simply ripped each other off the strips for the entire season and then at the end of the season, Kimi Raikkonen wins.

“I think, from that perspective, Oscar has been very, very positive in his support of the team and his willingness to support the team in what needs to happen.

“He’s looking at the long game and sincerely wants his team to win.”

Norris fell 62 points behind Verstappen in the fight for the 2024 F1 title after the Sao Paulo Grand Prix with 86 points to play for, while Piastri is now mathematically out of contention for this year’s crown.

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