It’s time for McLaren to back Lando Norris - but he needs to do more personally

It’s time to back Norris

McLaren were once again at the centre of attention at the Italian Grand Prix as they threw away another F1 grand prix victory.

Oscar Piastri had put together a fantastic race at Monza with an aggressive overtake on McLaren teammate Lando Norris before leading by over five seconds.

McLaren’s cautious approach came back to bite as they committed to a two-stop strategy whereas Ferrari adopted a one-stop with Charles Leclerc, ultimately winning a race on home soil. 

It’s the fourth missed opportunity after Canada, Britain and possibly Belgium where McLaren quite easily could have won with better strategy decisions.

However, the more pressing issue for McLaren is Norris’ pursuit of the drivers’ championship - and whether it’s time to back him now.

Norris sits just 62 points behind Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship with eight rounds to go, and given the respective trajectory of the two teams involved, the British driver has a great chance of taking this year’s crown.

McLaren’s impressive form in contrast to Red Bull’s crisis should give the Woking outfit’s senior management motivation to back Norris for this year’s world championship.

After Monza, it appears that team principal Andrea Stella is leaning towards doing so.

He told the media at Monza, where Crash.net were present: "We have to be now in condition to acknowledge that not only the constructor championship is possible,” Stella added.

“Even from a driver's point of view, with the performance we have at the moment in the car, and some of the struggles that we see with Red Bull, it is definitely possible.

“So if we can achieve both as a team, we need to put the team in condition and Lando in condition to pursue both championships.”

Looking back to Lap 1, Piastri deserves no criticism for how he acted in wheel-to-wheel combat with Norris.

His manoeuvre on Norris was spectacular, aggressive, and would have ultimately earned him the win at Monza had he stuck to a one-stop strategy.

While it did open the door for Leclerc to make it through past Norris, Piastri’s actions weren’t against the team’s pre-race instructions.

Still, given the possibility of Norris seriously becoming world champion this year, it was a needless risk and one that could have been controlled by the team with a simple pre-race instruction over conduct beyond the opening sequence of corners.

However, Norris himself shouldn’t escape criticism though for his weak defence on Piastri, effectively leaving the door open for his teammate to get past.

No doubt, the team needs to make a decision from Azerbaijan onwards, but Norris needs to stop giving Piastri the incentive (like in Hungary) to interfere with his title pursuit.

Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Verstappen were all ruthless against their teammates when they needed to be - it’s time for Norris to do the same.

More than a ‘quali merchant’

Leclerc continues to put in mighty race day performances in 2024, and Monza was no different.

Even though he complained early on about being undercut by Norris, once given clear air when the two McLarens came into the pits for their second stops, Leclerc managed his tyres beautifully before hanging onto to take an emotional victory.

In the past, Leclerc was often labelled as a ‘quali merchant’ or a one-trick pony due to his blistering pace on a Saturday, often taking pole, before falling away in the process.

With this year’s Ferrari better balanced and more neutral in terms of how it handles its tyres, Leclerc has been able to show when it comes to Sundays and tyre preservation, he’s up there with the very best.

Leclerc has demonstrated that he’s an all-round driver who will certainly give Hamilton a very hard time next year. 

Unprecedented Red Bull downfall

Red Bull’s downfall continued at the Italian Grand Prix with Verstappen only finishing sixth, over 35 seconds behind Leclerc in the end.

Given where they started the season, dominating the opening handful of races, to now coming away from a race weekend as the fourth-best team, it’s baffling.

Such a drop in performance has been unprecedented.

While Brawn GP went from dominant race winners to a similar position to where Red Bull are now, that was simply down to a lack of finances and development.

Red Bull have all the resources and personnel to turn things around.

The worrying thing for Red Bull is that McLaren have improved their car with their recent Dutch GP upgrade, and with circuits like Azerbaijan and Singapore coming up which aren’t expected to suit the RB20, there’s likely to be more pain to come. 

New Audi boss sees struggles live

New Audi chief Mattia Binotto was present in the Sauber garage at this weekend’s Italian GP.

It’s the first time we’ve seen the former Ferrari boss involved with the Hinwil outfit since he was announced in July.

Binotto will spearhead Audi’s F1 team as Chief Operating and Chief Technical Officer alongside Jonathan Wheatley, who will be the team principal when he eventually joins from Red Bull.

The Italian has a mammoth job on his hands with Sauber bottom of the constructors’ championship.

Sauber have failed to register a single top 10 finish in 2024 and Monza wasn’t any better for them.

Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu locked out the back row of the grid and were comfortably the slowest team on race day.

Binotto told Motorsport.com: “We cannot afford it. I think this is the team that has to become, in the future, a winning team. And the only way to do that is starting to move up, progressing. We need to train our muscles for the future.

“So, yes, I think we need certainly to improve. That’s important for ourselves, that’s important for the team. It’s important for the brand. It’s important for our partners. And we cannot somehow accept the current position.”