F1 Q&A: Verstappen, Russell, Hamilton, Alonso, McLaren, Norris, Piastri and Red Bull

Did McLaren err in not allowing Lando Norris to become the number one driver earlier, which would likely have put them as driver and constructors’ champions? – Tracey

It’s debatable – to say the least – whether favouring Norris earlier would have made him world champion, as there were actually very few times when McLaren could have, as usually he was ahead of Oscar Piastri.

The obvious ones are Hungary and Monza.

In Budapest, Norris was on pole but Piastri took the lead at the first corner, and then there was the issue of whether Norris should let Piastri back past after the way the team ran the strategy ended up with Norris ahead.

It would have been very harsh on Piastri to keep Norris ahead – he had earned the win. But let’s say they had done it – that’s seven more points for Norris.

In Monza, there is a strong argument to say McLaren should not have allowed them to race on the first lap, because Piastri’s brilliant passing move on Norris at Turn Four ended up with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari nipping ahead of Norris into second place, from where he went on to win.

It’s impossible to know whether McLaren would have won had this not happened, because Ferrari may still have tricked them with the one-stop. But even if Norris had won rather than finished third, that’s an extra 10 points.

Verstappen finished 63 points ahead of Norris. So it’s hard to argue that team orders in these two events would have made Norris champion – they wouldn’t.

But that’s not to say that McLaren don’t feel there is something to learn from the way they handled this season.

McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown was asked before the race in Abu Dhabi last weekend whether he thought it would have been better to favour Norris earlier.

He said: “No. I don’t tend to regret things. I tend to learn and go, ‘I would have done that differently.’ Otherwise you live in a series of regrets.

“It was hard, because Oscar was never that far behind Lando [in the championship]. We started getting noise that we should favour Lando halfway through the season, which was really early.

“I think what we learned, like, in Monza was we went into Turn Four first and second and came out first and third, but the instruction we gave them was more vague. It was subjective, it was: ‘Don’t take risks.’

“So Lando was thinking, ‘I don’t need to block that hard because I don’t need to take a risk.’ And Oscar was thinking: ‘Hey, door looks pretty open to me.’

“In hindsight, we could have been more definitive in, ‘how you enter Turn Four is how you need to come out of Turn Four. Clear everyone and then go race.’

“I like that we let our guys go race. But if I look at Monza, that’s what we learned. That we need to be more definitive, as a driver’s view of what’s risky is subjective.”