Lando Norris doesn’t want to be “given” F1 title despite McLaren team orders decision

Lando Norris insists he wants to win this year’s F1 world championship on merit despite a U-turn from McLaren on their team orders policy.

Ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, McLaren boss Andrea Stella confirmed they will favour Norris in certain scenarios during the final eight races of the year.

Norris sits 62 points behind Max Verstappen heading into Baku this weekend, meaning the British driver needs an average of eight points per race over the Red Bull driver to take the title.

Despite not having the support of his teammate, Norris wants to win this year’s title through his own performances on track.

Speaking in Baku, where Crash.net are present in the paddock, Norris said: “If a driver is doing better than me and performing, I need to do a better job, so I wouldn't want to take that away from someone.

“I also don't want to be given a championship. Yes, it would be great to have a championship, and in the short term you feel amazing, but I don't think you'd be proud of that in the long run.

“That's not something I want, that's not how I want to win a championship. 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.”

It seems Norris won’t be favoured in every scenario though.

Norris confirmed that Oscar Piastri won’t be forced to give him race wins on track, more the new rules will apply for “lower positions”.

“In general, probably for lower positions, but if he's fought for a win and he's deserving of a win, then he deserves to win,” Norris explained.

The Italian Grand Prix ultimately resulted in McLaren making a decision to adopt a more structured policy with team orders.

It came after Norris was overtaken by Piastri on Lap 1, causing the former to lose out to Charles Leclerc.

Reflecting on Monza, Norris said: “We’ve had Papaya rules for years. We just classed it as Papaya rules. I think there will be certain times when it's just not smart to battle. I think if you go into a lap one and that's on your mind, that's the wrong approach. 

“I think you both have to go into Lap 1 with the right approach, which is to attack it, to try and go forward. As soon as you start thinking about other things that's normally when it starts to go wrong.

“I think Monza was a slightly different case. We've looked back at that and we've resolved that. From now we’re still fighting for each other.”

Under the new rules, Norris suggested that he would have been allowed past Piastri at the end of the Italian GP given it wasn’t for the win.

“Similar to Monza but second and third would have been swapped around - something like that,” he concluded.