Norris Speaks Up: 'I feel that people want to make stuff up'

In Hungary, there was a mishap in McLaren's pitstop strategy. McLaren's decision to pit Lando Norris first caused Norris to come out in front of his teammate. At the time, Piastri was leading the race before that. While the team eventually asked Brition to give back the position, it caused quite a stir on the grid and in the media. If Norris had kept the position, he would have seven more points. 

During the race at Monza, Piastri decided to go after his own success. After that,  McLaren decided to favour Norris's bid for the championship. This decision became clear during the next few races, but especially during the Brazilian GP. With Norris needing to land on the top podium step this weekend, we could see team orders reenacted again. 

Norris talks team orders at Las Vegas

When asked if anything would change within the team, he said, "That [what Piastri did in Brazil] didn't change anything in terms of points for the [constructors'] championship. I feel that people are trying to make something up here. I am not saying you are doing that, but we have never done anything that harms the team. I have a feeling people think we are." This was in relation to the World Drivers' Championship and McLaren's previous strategy. 

Norris continued, "Everything we have done has only involved changing positions. It didn't hurt us, and it didn't benefit us. I benefited because I was in the battle for the championship, and that's the game we have to play as well, just like I helped Oscar a few times, for example, with his win in Baku. But I think Andrea [Stella] made it very clear from the beginning that we would never do anything to make the team result worse. So no, nothing is going to change."

This article was written in Collaboration with Cas Van de Kleut.