Lando Norris F1 title bid backed by McLaren as Oscar Piastri decision made

McLaren have been reluctant to favour Lando Norris over his team-mate Oscar Piastri up to now but, with the Briton in contention for the drivers' title, that stance has changed

McLaren boss Andrea Stella is prepared to finally back Lando Norris' title bid - but insists: "We want to win in the right way."

Up to now, McLaren have been reluctant to tell Oscar Piastri to help his team-mate. But the Briton is the closest challenger to Max Verstappen in the drivers' championship and, with Red Bull struggling, Norris undeniably has a shot at the title.

McLaren have their own rules of engagement which its drivers must abide by during a race - dubbed the 'Papaya Rules'. And Stella says they will still need to be adhered to even if the team is now ready to make Norris the priority.

The Italian told BBC Sport: "The overall concept is we are incredibly determined to win, but we want to win in the right way. We [will] bias our support to Lando but we want to do it without too much compromise on our principles.

"Our principles are that the team interest always comes first. Sportsmanship for us is important in the overall way we go racing. And then we want to be fair to both drivers."

Norris had the chance to take a significant chunk out of Verstappen's advantage last time out at the Italian Grand Prix. The Briton lined up on pole at Monza but was caught napping by Piastri on the first lap and the move also allowed eventual winner Charles Leclerc to slip past.

Norris finished the race third while Verstappen crossed the line sixth - so the McLaren driver gained ground, but not as much as he would have liked. And Stella is keen to avoid a repeat in Baku this weekend, or at any of the eight remaining rounds of the season.

He explained: "What we don't want to see any more is a situation like in Monza in which we enter a chicane P1/P2 and we exit P1/P3. Because that is a detriment to the team. The team interests comes first and these are the situations that above all we need to fix because eventually, as a matter of fact, the way we entered the race in Monza left the door open this situation.

"After Monza, three objectives: We need to make sure that anything that happens on track is not to the detriment of the team. Second objective, how do we win both championships, both drivers committed to help? But what we don't want to do is win in a reckless way. Those are the three topics and they define the way we go racing in Baku. This will be updated after Baku."

And we went on to say Piastri accepts that Norris will get priority, adding: "The conversations have been very collaborative. Even when I said to Oscar, 'Would you be available to give up a victory?' He said, 'It's painful, but if it's the right thing to do now, I will do it'."

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