McLaren encourages Lando Norris pushback over team radio at Qatar GP

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri brought home a brilliant double-podium for McLaren at the Qatar GP. This was their second double-podium in consecutive races. Despite this brilliant result, the Formula 1 world got to hear some angst over the team radio from Lando Norris. However, Team Boss Andrea Stella says that McLaren encourage that form of communication.

A Brilliant Qatar GP

McLaren had a poor qualifying session by their current standards at the Qatar GP. However, a first-lap incident between the two Mercedes left the goal open for them. No other car was on their pace.

Oscar Piastri backed up his first win in Formula 1 in the Qatar GP Sprint with a solid 2nd place in the main race. Lando Norris picked up the 3rd spot in both the races.

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Team Orders and Radio Anger

Despite Oscar Piastri winning the sprint at the Qatar GP, he is still not as good at managing tyres over an entire race as Lando Norris is. He had to do a lot more work than Oscar Piastri in the race. Despite that, when their final stints began, Lando Norris was just 2 seconds behind him.

McLaren were running 3-4 in the Qatar GP despite starting P6 and P10, with George Russell still to pit. Therefore, McLaren gave team orders to Lando Norris to hold position. His race engineer, Will Joseph, said, “Lando, we’re going to hold position, bring it home.”

Talk about talent! And he's only 22 😮@OscarPiastri is growing up fast in F1 👏#F1 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/ajPWybJpZC

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 8, 2023

Lando Norris said, “Why do you want to do that? We have a big gap. I’m clearly a lot quicker”.

Will responded, “Lando, we see that, we know that, it doesn’t matter. We’re worried a little bit about Russell, the gap [is] 13.4s ahead, we think he might put a soft on towards the end of the race and be quick.”

Lando Norris did try to push, but Oscar kept him at bay.

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McLaren Encourages This

Andrea Stella says McLaren encourages Lando Norris’ pushback at the Qatar GP. “When we give drivers an instruction, we tell them: ‘Challenge us because we want to make sure we understand your point of view. Tell us exactly what you think, we will reassess the situation and come back to you. But once we come back to you, just respect it’.”