Norris responds to the McLaren team orders call in Baku to help Piastri
F1 News
During the F1 weekend, when McLaren was expected to start helping Lando Norris in his bid for the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship, it was actually Norrs himself playing the wingman role to his teammate Oscar Piastri. The McLaren team told Norris to try holding up Sergio Perez so that the Mexican wouldn't undercut the Australian. Norris has since reacted to playing the team role, and he suggests it made him the happiest.
On the McLaren team radio, Norris was asked if he could hold up Perez during the middle sector of the circuit. Perez couldn't find his way through, though he did make the overtake down the start/finish straight. Still, it worked for McLaren as Piastri returned to the track ahead of the Mexican driver. Piastri went on to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
"The main point was I defended against Checo and just allowed him to not get ahead of Oscar. And then that pretty much allowed Oscar to go and get a win. So I did my small part for the team, which I'm very happy about because it got us to P1 in the constructors, and that's pretty much the thing that makes me the happiest," Norris responded to a question from GPblog.
Was Norris surprised to catch Verstappen?
Norris completed a long stint on the hard tyres. He pitted and fell around 15 seconds behind Verstappen when he returned to the track. Norris hunted him down and made the overtake work so that he could cut the gap in the World Championship. Norris admitted this surprised him.
"A little bit surprised. When you start 15th, I didn't really expect to beat him, especially because they all boxed and were behind me. So I was about 22 seconds behind on real terms where they were. To create a gap ahead of him and then to box and to still overtake him, I wasn't expecting probably to do such a thing," Norris said before highlighting how Verstappen used his tyres.
"I could defend against Max because he spent six laps trying to catch up when the Ferrari was behind. So I knew his tyres were getting to a point where they were too hot and he couldn't attack me anymore. So I played the game well and I knew I couldn't defend against Carlos, but I could defend against Max," Norris explained.