Christian Horner: Oscar Piastri causing McLaren ‘headaches’ amid team orders ‘confusion’

Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner weighs in♔ on McLaren's team orders stance, writes Lewis Larkam in Baku.

Christian Horner
Christian Horner

Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner says 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Oscar Piastri is causing McLaren “he♊adaches” amid the “confusion” surrounding their stance oဣver team orders.

Following discussions after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, McLaren confirmed they were implementing new team rules for the remainder of the season to boost 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris’s chase of Red Bull’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said his team would favour Norris over teammate Piastri, who insisted he would be “happy to play a supporting r⭕ole at this point of the seas𓄧on”.

The British outf🅰it’s new rules were not required at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Piastri won while Norris recovered to fourth, one place ahead of Verstappe🐲n, having started from 15th place after suffering a shock Q1 exit.

Asked for his opinion on McLaren’s change of approach to team orders, Horner said: "Usually those thinꦜgs are dealt with behind closed doors. I’m not actually sure what those rules are. There’s still seems confusion.”

Norris trimmed Verstappen’s advantage by three points down to 59 points in Baku, while Piastri is 91 points behind the Dutchman and 32 adrift of 🔯his McLaren teammate.

Horner compared McLaren’s situation as being꧙ similar to when Red Bull promoted Daniel Ricciardo to race alongside four-tꦅime world champion Sebastian Vettel in 2014.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

“I think the other one [Piastri] is causi🦹ng them headaches because h𒊎e’s winning races and he’s doing a very good job,” Horner continued.

“It was like when Daniel Ricciardo came to us, he 🧸was clearly supposed to be the number t💛wo to Sebastian Vettel, and he won three races that year to Sebastian’s none.

“Sometimes it causes you 🐟a headache like that. For sure they took Oscar with the expectation, as Mercedes probably did with George [Russell], and Ferrari probably did with Carlos [Sainz], that you have a p🍨rime asset and a support asset.

“Of course when the second driver starts outperforming ꧒the first dri🐻ver that’s when you tend to have a headache.”

Hor🌞ner suggested that McLaren have n𒐪ot been “upfront” with their drivers and could be left facing a “very difficult problem to manage.”

“Different teams operate in different ways. When you’ve got💛 an asset like Max Verstappen, you don’t make him a number two driver,” Horner explained.

"Lando Norris, they are paying five times what the💦y pay Oscar, so I would assume that he would be their number one driver, or t𝄹he biggest asset. The confusion comes when you are not upfront from the beginning about what your plans are.

“It becomes a very difficult problem to manage, because you split the team and the rules of engagement become very difficult. Everybody kn꧒ows probably who the number one and two is, but if you’re not upfront with the drivers, you end up with confusion.

“At the beginning of the season obviously it’s all op🌊en but certainly when you get to around the half-way point, you’ve got to pick a horse, especially if you’re in a championship battle.” 

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