Absence of stable orders and unusual errors: in McLaren not everything is happy

October will be a decisive month for McLaren: after missing Baku the first opportunity to reveal the manufacturers’ title, Singapore can be decisive. It is only a matter of time before the trophy is brought to Woking for the second consecutive year: the supremacy of the MCL39 has never been questioned and it is not the empty passage in Azerbaijan that changes the fate of the championship. If that of the stables is already decided, so it is not the pilot one. Flatri and Norris have battled themselves from the first bars of the season, even if there are very few tussks between the two on the track. The aim? Do not leave any point behind for the final goal of the team, at the expense of the struggle on the track between two drivers who guide the same car and that can more than all others give show. In fact, the different ‘stables orders’ imparted to the two young Alfieri Papaya, the swaps asked after errors in the pits so as not to disturb the internal serenity, made so much. But is the tranquility that you breathe in the box is true or only apparent?

Battle of Nervi in ​​McLaren

–

“I respect Verstappen for what he is doing, but he is in a much easier position to do it than me or piastri. If he were fighting for the championship and he tried in things like that I don’t think he would make a good impression”: once again Norris does not hide his moments of difficulty during an event after the race in Baku, when he was already known as the Dutch he was trying to take his license to be able to drive the Ferrari 296 GT3 in the 4 hours of the 4 hours of the 4 hours of the 4 hours of Nordschleife. If between Norris and Piastri there are no tussle on the track, however there is no lack of tension for what could be the first victory of the pilot title of both. The most acute sensitivity of the British compared to that of other colleagues on the grid, which emerged during last season in the fight with Verstappen, has penalized it on several occasions and therefore is not surprising. The Australian, on the other hand, surprised everyone in the management of emotions in his third year in Formula 1. In this perspective they hit the two errors made to Baku, who first compromised the qualification and then the race. On this occasion, however, Norris did not manage to take advantage of the teammate’s retirement, cutting the finish line only in seventh position. A very interested spectator of the internal affairs of McLaren is Verstappen, who thanks to the two victories of Monza and Singapore has shortened his distances in the standings, once again taking advantage of the fake Papaya most of all.

Do they need stable orders?

–

Since last season McLaren have always before the team’s interests in those of the pilots with the famous ‘Papaya Rules’. This is how the controversial first victory in Formula 1 of Plastri arrived in the sprint in Hungary, after the wall told Norris to leave the position after favoring it with the pit stop. These unwritten rules have also been protagonists this season, culminating with another swap ordered in Monza: to be indicted is a particularly slow pit stop of the team, which she has not used to. Norris, who returned to the pits when he was in second position, returns to the track in the third behind Plastri, to whom he is said to let him pass. The order of Scuderia, or the absence of it, was much discussed at the end of the race. The first to comment on him was Toto Wolff, who reiterated how they created a previous difficult to erase, if he was right or wrong will be seen at the end of the season. Riccardo Patrese also intervened on the topic, which highlights how the victories and pressure that Verstappen is putting on the McLaren drivers has seen himself in the unusual errors made by piastri in Baku and by the fact that Norris did not take risks to be able to gnaw important points in the standings. For the former Italian pilot, “This is the problem that Andrea Stella has to face. If Max continues in the next two races, perhaps winning one, then McLaren will have to say: ‘Now they need stable orders’. The team cannot afford Norris and Plasters will come up and lose points. From the way Verstappen speaks shows that he knows that the car has improved and that there will perhaps be small improvements. Possibility to put pressure and maybe win the championship. ”

Singapore test bench

–

Those who arrive better in Singapore are certainly Verstappen, thanks to two wins that trust the team reborn under the guidance of Mekies and make hope for the season finale. The Dutchman seems to have found the square with his difficult management of the early season from the beginning of the season and left Baku Conscio that he had capitalized at the most and that he has put pressure on the whole McLaren team. But Max did not stop there: in the week’s break between a Grand Prix and the other he launched himself in a new adventure in NLS, first obtaining his license to be able to run in that category and then participating, and winning, the 4 hours of Nordschleife at the helm of the Ferrari 296 GT3 in pairs with Chis Lulham. Time to get off the GT again and is again behind the wheel of a single -seater on a decisive weekend from different points of view. Singapore, in fact, is the only circuit on the calendar where Verstappen has never climbed the top step of the podium. In addition, this particular city layout has always been difficult for Red Bull, just think of the 2023 championship where the only one -did not be launched Milton Keynes has arrived in the Asian roads. After Baku’s difficulties, however, not even McLaren is sure to go strong, but while in the first part of the season he managed to go further and to have equally successful, now with a Verstappen in a dazzling form and able to say his is no longer so obvious. The outcome of the match in Singapore can not only make the celebrations to Woking postpone once again, but a possible Max victory would further put pressure on the team and the pilots. In the Red Bull box, however, they are convinced that the final ranking of the manufacturers could change against Mercedes and Ferrari, if not even relaunch the Dutch in that driver, as admitted by Helmut Marko to Baku.