Marko chuckles at McLaren team order decision

Top figures at Red Bull admit they are keeping a keen eye on developments at 2024 championship rival McLaren.

Following a fortnight of speculation about the ’team orders’ situation at McLaren, the British team now admits Oscar Piastri may have to play a supportive role to teammate Lando Norris for the 8-race dash to the title finale.

"We will direct our support to Lando, but we want to do this without making too many compromises on our principles," team boss Andrea Stella is quoted as saying by Bild newspaper.

"We don’t want to get into situations like in Monza again," he added. "That damaged the team."

Dr Helmut Marko, the senior consultant at Red Bull, chuckled when he heard the news.

"I haven’t heard what Oscar Piastri says about this plan yet," he smiled.

Piastri told reporters on Thursday that he is prepared to help Norris, but both the young Australian and Norris denied that Piastri will necessarily have to give up a win.

"I asked Oscar if he would give up a victory," Stella continued. "He replied that it would be painful for him, but that he would do it for the team."

Although no longer with the quickest car, Max Verstappen still has a 62-point lead over Norris, so he thinks the tricky situation between the orange-clad drivers is an advantage.

"I think it’s quite natural, when you have two good drivers in the same team, they want to beat each other," he told Sky Italia in Baku.

"They have to do what they think is best, but they have not been far apart in the championship all the time and Oscar is also not the type of driver that you should put aside as your second driver.

"For us it’s an advantage that they’re dealing with the situation that Piastri is closer to Lando than Lando is to me," the Dutchman added. "At least that’s how Oscar will see if from his point of view.

"I just want to build on our strengths. And it’s not my problem either - I have enough of them already," the triple world champion added.

Indeed, Verstappen arrived in Azerbaijan repeating what he also said recently at Monza - that if Red Bull cannot up its game quickly, winning either title is becoming "unrealistic".

"Max can say what he wants to say," said Norris, who travelled to Baku in Verstappen’s private plane, "but he’s still more than 60 points ahead.

"I have eight races to make up for that. Even if I win all eight, it’s not easy. I’d rather be in his position than mine."

Seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton agrees with Norris that Verstappen is definitely still the title favourite - and scoffed at the claim that Red Bull winning the world championships is not unrealistic.

"Did he really say that?" Hamilton said at Baku. "I mean, he’s really quite far ahead. I don’t know what else to say about that."

As for Marko, he sees similarities between McLaren’s current situation and Red Bull’s unsuccessful attempt to chase down Jenson Button at Brawn way back in 2009.

"Back then, we had the fastest car from the middle of the season and yet Button won the world championship," the 81-year-old recalled.

"We were too prone to making mistakes back then and didn’t have the right strategy. It’s similar at McLaren, otherwise our lead would already be much smaller."