Does Oscar Piastri have to drive for teammate Lando Norris at the Formula 1 season finale on Sunday? Although the Australian still has a mathematical chance of winning the title, his starting position in qualifying in Abu Dhabi has not improved.
Piastri was the slowest of the three World Cup candidates in third place and will start on Sunday behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. If Verstappen wins the race, Piastri would no longer have the opportunity to win his first title anyway. Ralf Schumacher believes that he should now provide support for his teammate.
“Piastri now has to drive for Norris, the cheese is now eaten,” the German told Sky. Given that in the last ten years the driver on pole has always won the race, the probability of Verstappen winning is quite high.
Ralf Schumacher: Piastri should slow down the competition
In that case, Norris absolutely has to finish on the podium if McLaren doesn’t want to lose the title to Red Bull. “And imagine them fighting and crashing into each other. Then they are [Charles] Leclerc and [George] Russell in between, Norris fourth – and then they lose the title,” said Schumacher. “So that’s not possible.”
Therefore, Piastri should protect Norris at the back on Sunday. “He has to make sure that nothing happens at the pit stops. If they can’t overtake Max Verstappen, it’s clear that he then has to generate the gap so that nothing happens,” he says. “So he has to slow down the others if necessary.”
McLaren would certainly prefer to control the race on Sunday and drive home safely. “We definitely want to make sure that we don’t trip over each other in our duel between our boys,” says managing director Zak Brown at Sky.
However, Piastri himself also has an agenda: “As long as either Max or Lando don’t cross the finish line before me, I’m still in the race for the title,” emphasizes the Australian.
How does Piastri approach the start?
He “hasn’t yet thought about” how he will approach the start from third place. Does he hold on and look for his own chance – with the risk of a collision within the team – or does he let Verstappen and Norris do their thing in Turn 1 and hope for the best?
“To win the championship I obviously need more than just winning the race. So yeah, we’ll see what that means,” he says. So maybe it would be best to grab the bag of popcorn and watch the two at the front? “It could be,” says Piastri.
But he may be in a situation on Sunday where he cannot win the title. Would he then help Norris at the team’s request? “I haven’t had any direct discussions about it yet,” he waves off. “But I’m sure we’ll talk about it. It makes a lot of sense to sort it out before the race.”
“I don’t yet know exactly what is expected of me,” he continues, and when asked how Norris could thank him if he helped, he replied: “I have no idea. A handshake would probably be good.”
The winner can then be happy
One thing is certain: in the best case scenario, only one of the two McLaren drivers can win the title; one will definitely leave the track as a loser. This could lead to a strange situation within the team because one pilot is celebrating while the other is mourning.
But the eventual winner doesn’t need to have any reason to feel guilty, says Piastri: “One of us could win his first F1 world championship tomorrow – of course we’ll celebrate that,” he says.
“I think we have enough respect for each other to appreciate the work of the person who loses. There will only be respect in both directions. And it would be unfair to expect that the person who wins shouldn’t be able to be happy.” He emphasizes: “We are adults and respect each other enough to know what is right.”
“This is not a conversation that needs to be had,” says Norris, dismissing this topic. “We understand each other and respect each other. I think we both know that neither would do anything to intentionally make the other feel worse.”
“We respect what we do every weekend – every qualifying, every race. We race against each other, of course, but even off the track we see ourselves as two different guys who get along well with each other. And that’s enough.”