Apparently everything in Formula 1 only revolves around the World Championship duel Lando Norris against Max Verstappen – but the exaggerated reporting in the final spurt of the title fight is too much for the Brit in the service of McLaren.
When asked whether his second place in qualifying for the sprint race gave him confidence that rival Verstappen won’t get past fourth place on Friday, Norris blurted out: “I’m not interested. I hate that question so much …I don’t care where he qualifies!”
The McLaren star explains: “I just concentrate on my job, that’s it. You know, it’s just the same question every time. But it doesn’t make any difference whether he’s first or last, I do my best. “
Piastri in front of Norris: Wrong McLaren on sprint pole
On Saturday, despite a dominant performance over long stretches, that was enough for the front row of the grid in the sprint qualifying, but not for first place – is McLaren still the favorite with its strong pace? “Tomorrow is a new day, we’ll see,” Norris doesn’t want to jump to conclusions, although he is pleased: “Today we definitely made good progress.”
The sprint qualification was “a big improvement compared to this morning”: “We had a lot of difficulties. So it was a bit surprising that we were so fast today, but of course pleasant. A good lap.” At least the first one in SQ3: “On my last lap I made too many mistakes, so I just went into the pits,” explains Norris, and praises: “But good job as a team.”
Because stablemate Oscar Piastri takes pole for the sprint – somewhat surprising, as Sky expert Timo Glock thinks: “In qualifying, he (Norris) was actually in his own league for a long time, always two or three tenths ahead. I was a bit annoyed “I was surprised that the very soft tire wasn’t quite enough at the crucial moment.”
Nevertheless, Glock is convinced: “We have fundamentally taken a step and are continuing to proceed aggressively when it comes to development.” McLaren has a “very good package”, and recently – for example with the new rear wing – it has also made improvements in the right places: “It worked very, very well with this medium downforce package, with this new wing,” he says German.
Piastri: “Lando needs the points much more urgently”
Pole man Piastri fully agrees: “Yes, that’s good. It’s a constant push from the team to try to make the car even faster and this wing is a nice upgrade for us here. We’re pretty happy with it.”
But despite all the strength, the question remains: How does the racing team solve the problem that the wrong McLaren is at the front at the sprint start with a view to the World Cup on Saturday? Since Baku, the team from Woking has basically decided and agreed that the Australian should support Norris in the fight for the title – Piastri wants to behave accordingly on Saturday:
“We’ll see what the pace is for both of us tomorrow. I think a one-two is the first goal, and then we’ll see what the order is,” Piastri said to Sky after the sprint pole. But he also makes it clear: “I know that Lando is fighting for the drivers’ championship, and for the team it doesn’t make any difference where we arrive. It would be nice to win, but it’s only a point difference and not the main race, so let’s see.”
The McLaren driver is aware: “Lando needs the points in the Drivers’ Championship much more urgently than I do. Of course I still want to win, so I will try to have a good pace, and I’m sure that won’t be overlooked.”
Stella: “Will support Lando”
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella also approaches the matter pragmatically as usual, saying with a view to a stable order on Friday in Sao Paulo: “We are still fighting for both championships, Lando is the driver who is in the race for the drivers’ title – so it is Of course we will support Lando.”
But the Italian emphasizes: “We have always said that we will do this in the spirit of our principles, which are based on integrity, sportiness and fairness for both drivers.” The team boss is transparent and points out “that in Austin and Mexico, for example, Lando had a few upgrades that were not available for both cars.”
Stella: “We therefore gave it to Lando to support the driver who is fighting for the World Championship. At the same time, due to our approach, we also have conversations with both drivers almost every day to ensure that if certain actions are necessary in a competitive session that happens with the consent of both sides – because we are looking at the season, but also at the future.”
Looking ahead, Piastri is primarily happy to be back in music in Brazil on Friday after a rather mixed weekend in Mexico. The McLaren driver says: “I think it may have come together a little better than expected, but we felt very confident after the first training session.”
“The newly asphalted route developed very quickly and was almost a second and a half faster in the end,” explains the Australian. Fortunately, the asphalt also had an effect on the tires: “On the last lap they stayed on soft for a second lap, which was nice because that meant I was able to get on pole.”
Source: www.sport.de
