McLaren will support Lando Norris as the Briton takes on Max Verstappen | F1 | Sport

Andrea Stella has admitted the time may be right to favor Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri for the rest of the season, with the Briton losing more unnecessary points in the title battle with Max Verstappen after finishing behind his teammate at Monza.

Norris secured pole position and kept the lead at turn one, but Piastri surprised his colleague with a daring maneuver around the outside of the Della Roggia chicane. The overtaking put the Briton in danger at the corner exit and he fell back to third place behind Charles Leclerc.

When the chequered flag fell, Piastri was in second place, with Norris just behind in third. If the positions had been reversed and Norris had been the favorite in Hungary, the 24-year-old would be 10 points closer to Verstappen in the overall standings.

Asked if McLaren would now give priority to Norris' title challenge, team boss Stella said: “Lando is obviously in the best position in terms of numbers. We are fighting against Max Verstappen. So if we want to support a driver, we definitely have to choose the one who is in the best position.”

“In our discussions before the race, we already realised that Lando is in the best position from a drivers' championship point of view. We will have discussions with Oscar, with Lando and together and then establish our rules of engagement. We want to try for the drivers' championship. [Championship] with Lando.”

As things stand, Norris is 62 points behind Verstappen ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but with two of Red Bull's least suitable circuits – Baku and Singapore – on the schedule, McLaren will have to make the right decision when a similar opportunity presents itself.

There was no shortage of opinions on the team orders fiasco, with even Mercedes boss Toto Wolff chiming in to offer his advice to the McLaren boss. “I think as a racing team that is suddenly fighting at the front, you're caught between a rock and a hard place, because on the one hand they're racing drivers, just like we're racing drivers,” he said.

“We want to make sure that the best wins, but on the other hand, if it starts to become dysfunctional and [is] affect your team's performance, how do you respond?

“The team is always the loser because if you freeze positions and issue team instructions, you may not be doing what our racing soul wants, but the rational side must prevail.

“At the end of the day, you don't want to lose a championship by three or five points when you could have easily won it. So this balancing act is very difficult and there is no universal truth about how to deal with it.”