Mercedes group boss Toto Wolff believes McLaren must determine if it’s going to throw its full backing behind Lando Norris in his struggle for the title.
Norris certified on pole for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix however was overtaken in flip 4 on the opening lap by team-mate Oscar Piastri as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the end went on to take an emotional victory in entrance of the tifosi.
With reigning champion and title contender Max Verstappen struggling to sixth in a sluggish Purple Bull, it was a chance missed for Norris to take a wholesome chunk out of the Dutchman’s championship lead.
The hole sits at 62 factors with 9 races remaining and, with McLaren itself solely eight factors behind Purple Bull within the constructors’ standings, the group is eager to maximise its benefit at any given alternative.
Wolff, who has handled duelling team-mates down the years, sympathised with McLaren and feels it’s a catch-22 state of affairs to having two drivers battling it out on observe.
“I feel as a racing group that’s battling on the entrance all of a sudden, you might be between a rock and a tough place as a result of on one facet they’re racers like we’re racers. We wish to make it possible for the very best man wins however on the opposite facet when it begins to change into dysfunctional and impacting your group efficiency then how do you react to that,” Wolff stated in Monza.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, 2nd place, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, third place, into Parc Ferme on the finish of the race
Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Photographs
“The group is all the time on the shedding finish as a result of if you happen to freeze positions and have group orders then you’ve possibly not what our racing soul needs to do however the rational facet must prevail.
“On the finish you don’t wish to lose out on a championship by three or 5 factors that you could possibly have simply made. So strolling that tightrope is so troublesome and there’s no common fact of methods to deal with it.”
Wolff stated McLaren counterpart Andrea Stella might now should dampen his racing instincts after the Italian stated he needs to evaluate Piastri’s first lap overtake earlier than deciding if it complied with its ‘Papaya Guidelines’ code of conduct.
“There’s no one that understands sport greater than Andrea. He has seen all of it of that pan out in entrance of his eyes a number of occasions at Ferrari,” added Wolff, referring to Stella’s stint on the Maranello squad between 2000-2014.
“He has that racers’ soul that doesn’t wish to do it and needs to allow them to race however I feel they’re going to come to some conclusion after this race, how are we dealing with this? That is once we began to introduce the foundations of engagement after which we modified the wording to racing intent as a result of ‘guidelines’ was too harsh as a phrase for the drivers.”
