McLaren's Stella on navigating the thin line between Norris-Piastri rivalry

19:44, 31 May

byNorberto Mujica

For Andrea Stella it may be a long race tomorrow, what with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris close title rivals and McLaren teammates will be starting the Spanish Grand Prix in the front row. A tough ask managing F1 drivers? The Italian himself answers.

Drivers often have a history of letting their competitive side muddle up the intrateam dynamics. It's a complex business after all coping with the fiery characters of F1 driver, as McLaren should know with the background of the bitter Ayrton Senna-Alain Prost, and Fernado Alonso-Lewis Hamilton rivalries.

"Managing Formula 1 drivers that compete for the same team on a fast car and in a quest for the championship is always going to be a difficult matter," Stella said to media including GPblog after the Spanish GP qualifying.

"But so far we have approached it in a way that I think has allowed both drivers to express their qualities, their speed and has been a relatively good run so far."

McLaren has always been proud of their lack of number 1 and number 2 driver status, and today it seemed as though Lando Norris had managed to somehow find himself behind Oscar Piastri as the Briton started his flying Q3 lap, and the Aussie finished it, who unwillingly gave Norris a tow down the main straight, albeit if a brief one.

[The tow episode] I would consider that relatively minor. We will review internally whether there's actually a case or not and we know that when the drivers are in the car they may not necessarily perceive exactly the situation," said Stella trying to nip a potential misunderstanding in the bud.

"So definitely this is in the class of the minor episodes. But we always said with Lando and Oscar there may be a situation because it's one of the difficult things, to manage internal competition, but I think we are we have a very strong foundation in our principles and In being lucky enough to have Oscar and Lando at the wheel."