Norris wants to defeat Verstappen 'on track, not with team orders'
F1 News
All of a sudden, team orders were once again brought up as the drivers arrived to Baku. While in the past, teams were able to favour their driver with a higher chance of winning the title, McLaren have now had to announce that Lando Norris has certain priorities. Yet, the Briton underlined this is not the way he would like to earn his first title in the competition.
Take the last Grand Prix in Italy, for example, where Piastri finished one place ahead of Norris. A swap of positions would have been possible, but there McLaren decided not to let Norris ahead. Perhaps he lost expensive points there in the battle with Max Verstappen; points that the Briton could end up falling short of the Red Bull Racing driver.
Two weeks ago, the two McLaren drivers could have easily swapped places on the final lap for example. Oscar Piastri was running in second place, and once it became clear he could not pass Charles Leclerc, he could have let Norris pass. However, McLaren chose against that in Monza, leading to Norris missing out on three points, that could be costly in the championship
Norris wants to beat Verstappen on merit
Indeed, imagine that would have made the difference in the standings, once the final results are in at the Abu Dhabi circuit. "I'm sure it will hurt," Norris told GPblog among others.
"I'm also here to race and if the driver is doing better than me and I'm performing [worse], it's because they're doing a better job. So I wouldn't want to take that away from someone. And I also don’t want to be given a championship. Yes, it would be great to have a championship and short term you'd feel amazing, but I don't think you'd be proud of that in the long run," he explained.
If Norris takes the world title this season, he wants to earn it on track, he revealed: "I want to win it by fighting against Max, by beating Max, beating my competitors and proving that I'm the best on track. And that's how I want to win," the McLaren driver concluded.
Co-Author: Ludo van Denderen
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