Norris reveals the dreaded small print to McLaren's team orders

Speaking in Baku, Norris was asked for his feelings on the team orders announcement and shared, "Good. Thankful. Yeah, how do I say it? He's still fighting for his own racing. He's still going out and doing his stuff. And it could be that there's no time this year that he needs to help me. So it’s more that I have Oscar’s help when needs be, but he's still going out with the intent of every session just fighting for himself and going to do his job," Norris told GPblog and others.

Norris happy with Piastri help but not taking it for granted

Norris seems adamant that Piastri is not going to sacrifice his own performance for the sake of helping Norris' championship hopes. The Brit was asked whether, in the case where Piastri is outperforming Norris, the Australian would automatically give Norris wins. Norris simply responded, "No." Norris then elaborates on this, specifying that the team orders will likely not come into play for race wins, but rather for the lower points scoring positions. "In general, probably for lower positions. But if he's fought for a win and he's deserving of a win, then he deserves to win."

The need for specific team orders regarding race wins likely stems from Piastri's first race win in the Hungarian Grand Prix in which Norris was reluctant to give Piastri the first place back after pit stops. 

The McLaren drivers are both still encouraged to perform their best on track. Norris explains: "But it's not like, I don't think it's not like a thing like you said at the beginning where he goes out every session now and that's his only job (to help me). If he goes out and he's better than me, and performs better than me, or qualifies me and he wins a race, that's because he's done a better job."

The Constructors' Championship is in touching distance for the papaya team as McLaren sit only eight points behind Red Bull.