Danica Patrick shares key McLaren contract details between Norris and Piastri

Although Oscar Piastri is open to supporting Lando Norris’ title challenge, he “absolutely” doesn’t have a No. 2 contract, Danica Patrick revealed.

McLaren faced a team order conundrum this season; He was criticized for not helping Norris at the start of the season and then for asking Piastri to take over the winger role.

Are numbers 1 and 2 fixed in the contracts at McLaren?

The Australian, who is behind Norris in the Drivers’ Championship, readily agreed to the role but made it clear to his teammate that it was not a “blank cheque”.

He later explained it to the media, among other things PlanetF1.com: “I try to help the team as best I can. So it’s not just about number one, number two. We still have the same car, we still have the same opportunities.”

From McLaren’s side, Brown said Sky F1 While he appreciates that others have a perspective on the situation, for the team it simply means that Piastri will support Norris in the here and now.

“It’s obviously been well talked about,” Brown told Sky. “Everyone has an opinion.

“I appreciate the people with a beer, a couch and a TV to help run the race team. Without our fans there is no sport. Let me make this clear. But yeah, you know, everyone has their opinion.

“I think we are now in a state where Oscar fully supports Lando. Lando wants to win the right way. So he’s not too interested in Oscar just waving it at him. He wants to win the championship.”

And according to Patrick, who spoke to Brown in the lead-up to the United States Grand Prix, the situation is changing as Brown talks to his drivers about it on a race-by-race basis.

F1 2024: Head-to-head stats between teammates

👉F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between teammates

👉F1 2024: Direct race statistics between teammates

“Zak said he talks to Lando and Oscar every day,” the guest expert revealed, “basically about the dynamics within the team and how they all talk to each other and agree on how things are going and it’s really a race for every race.” Deciding who has priority and what will happen during the race.

“So he’s just great at keeping the energy clean and keeping the team going, and he does that really well with the drivers.”

He also made it clear to her that neither Norris nor Piastri’s McLaren contracts contain a status clause.

“He said the drivers have ranking information in their contracts,” he said, “so I asked, ‘Do any of your drivers have that?’

“Absolutely not, but some do.”

Former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle described the team order debate as an “age-old problem that will continue to exist” because Formula 1 is both an individual and team sport.

“You are an individual athlete operating and busy in a team environment,” he continued. “There will always be conflict. It’s guaranteed.

“I heard a comment earlier in the weekend that if they had raced Monza again they would have driven it differently and perhaps not allowed Oscar to attack Lando on the first lap, for example.”

“But Lando says, ‘I don’t want any gimmicks, thanks. “I want to win this world championship because I am the fastest driver.”

“Both of them could have done without that contact there in Austria, especially Lando, but at the same time… Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa found themselves in a number two situation from which they never recovered psychologically. You don’t want to do that to Oscar Piastri, he has a great future ahead of him.

“So you are between a rock and a hard place. I think they played it reasonably well, but they left points unanswered and that means they didn’t put as much pressure on Red Bull as they should.”

After coming under some pressure, Red Bull recovered at the United States Grand Prix, where Verstappen overtook Norris for the first time in five races, extending his lead to 57 points, while Red Bull overtook McLaren for the first time since Spain, taking the The final point was a lead of 40 points in the constructors’ championship.

Read more: Why Lando Norris needs to tap into his inner Max Verstappen to actually beat him