{"id":328333,"date":"2025-12-05T00:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328333\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T00:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:48:12","slug":"lando-norris-wont-ask-mclaren-teammate-oscar-piastri-for-help-abu-dhabi-championship-decider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328333\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris won’t ask McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri for help, Abu Dhabi championship decider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris<\/a> says he won’t ask his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri<\/a> to give up a place to favour him in the three-way Formula 1 title fight with Max Verstappen at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Norris has a 12-point lead over Verstappen going into the final race, with Piastri four points further back.<\/p>\n

If Verstappen is far ahead of both McLarens, it’s possible Piastri could be in a situation where he can’t take the title himself but can aid Norris’ title bid. If Verstappen wins on Monday (AEDT), a top-three finish would be enough for Norris.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHonestly, I mean I would love it but I don\u2019t think I would ask it because it\u2019s up to Oscar if he would allow it. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily down to me,\u201d Norris said, sitting alongside Piastri and Verstappen at a pre-race news conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Norris and Piastri during the drivers’ press conference in Abu Dhabi.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Norris added he believed he would help out Piastri if the roles were reversed but said they hadn’t discussed any such situations within the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I think I would, just because I feel like that\u2019s just how I am, but this, it\u2019s not really up to me,\u201d Norris said. “I’m not going to ask it. I don\u2019t want to ask it because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily a fair question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri left the issue open. \u201cIt\u2019s not something we\u2019ve discussed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really have an answer until I know what\u2019s expected of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris had the chance to wrap up the title at last week\u2019s Qatar Grand Prix but a pit strategy blunder by McLaren handed Verstappen the win to boost his title defence chances. Piastri was second and Norris fourth in Qatar.<\/p>\n

Verstappen said he plans just to \u201chave a good time out there, try to maximise the result,\u201d but admitted that in the circumstances, \u201cI don\u2019t even know what that means, in terms of where you are in the ranking.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Mercedes driver George Russell was a vocal critic of any suggestion Piastri might be asked to sacrifice even slim title chances, regardless of whether it means neither of McLaren’s drivers ends up with the championship.<\/p>\n

No McLaren driver has taken the title since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s acceptable or reasonable to ask a driver who\u2019s also in a shot of a championship in the very last race to move over for your teammate,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n

“I think they both need to be given a shot and if they lose out because of it, you just need to say the other guy did a better job and that\u2019s racing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris says he won’t ask his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to give up a place to favour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-328333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}