Wolff Shares His Opinion On McLaren Team Orders As Norris Fights For Title

Sunday, 08 September 2024 at 14:00

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff discussed what would be the best for McLaren as the British team has both Championship titles within reach.

The 16th round of the season at Monza Circuit in Italy raised many questions about how the McLaren Racing F1 team should manage their drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Norris, who is second in the Drivers' Championship, had his race compromised by a risky overtake that his teammate pulled on him on the opening lap of the race.

While fans of motorsport want to see close intra-team battles, McLaren might also consider helping Norris achieve the Drivers' title by ordering Piastri to be more cooperative.

Mercedes's team principal, Toto Wolff, shared his opinion on the matter following the 2024 Italian Grand Prix. He told the media at the circuit:

"I think as a racing team that is battling at the front, suddenly, you are between a rock and a hard place because, on one side, they are racers like we are racers."

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"We want to make sure that the best man wins, but on the other side, when it starts to become dysfunctional and impact your team's performance, then, how do you react to that?"

McLaren has two options: either continue having two number-one drivers and let them battle it out on the track, or set the number-one driver based on the Championship standings and have the other help him out.

Wolff has gone through both of these in the past. He had two number-one drivers with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell or Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

On the other hand, Valtteri Bottas started as a second-number-one driver, but when it came down to fighting for the Drivers' Championship in 2018 or 2021, the Finn started receiving some team orders. Wolff added:

"The team is always on the losing end because if you freeze positions and have team orders then you have maybe not what our racing soul wants to do but the rational side needs to prevail."

"At the end, you don't want to lose out on a championship by three or five points that you could have easily made. So walking that tightrope is so difficult, and there is no universal truth of how to handle it."