McLaren urged to strike Mark Webber deal after Oscar Piastri contract clause rumours
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been team-mates since the start of the F1 2023 season
Guenther Steiner has urged McLaren to strike a deal with Oscar Piastri’s manager Mark Webber to help support Lando Norris’s F1 2024 title bid.
It comes amid rumours, first suggested by Nico Rosberg over the course of the Italian Grand Prix weekend, that a clause contained in Piastri‘s contract is preventing McLaren from enforcing team orders to help the team take the fight to Max Verstappen and Red Bull.
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Having started F1 2024 in dominant fashion, Verstappen and Red Bull remain without a win since the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23 following an alarming mid-season slump.
Verstappen could only manage sixth – his worst result since May – at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, where a McLaren front-row lockout presented a golden opportunity for Norris to reduce the Red Bull driver’s points lead.
However, Norris was overtaken on the opening lap by team-mate Piastri, with the McLaren pair eventually pipped to victory by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Norris trails Verstappen by 62 points with eight races remaining, with McLaren eight points adrift of Red Bull in the Constructors’ standings.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after the race at Monza, McLaren boss Andrea Stella hinted the team could reconsider their stance on team orders, with McLaren keen to “give it a go” with Norris to try and win the Drivers’ Championship.
It has been speculated, however, that a clause in Piastri’s contract is preventing the team from asking the Australian – manager by former Red Bull driver Webber – to serve as Norris’s wingman.
Appearing on the Red Flags podcast, former Haas team principal Steiner has urged McLaren to negotiate with Webber to ensure that Piastri supports his team-mate for the remainder of the season, with the promise of paying Piastri back at a later date.
He said: “You change the clause.
“I think if you sit Mark down – not sit him down because you cannot sit him down, he doesn’t work for you – but if he’s the manager, you have a conversation. Mark is a grown up.
“Obviously, nothing is for free in life. We all know that, but how many World Championship opportunities do you have in life?
“Maybe it’s the only one. Maybe there is some more [chances to come in the future], but who knows? I don’t know. But if there is one more, Oscar should get it.
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“It could be that they are equal drivers. If it says it’s equal drivers, it’s equal drivers and, for sure, Mark is pointing at that one.
“But then you need to speak with Mark and say: ‘Dude, we have got a chance, we don’t want to waste it. Next year, if we have got another chance, we turn it around.’
“And you tell that to Lando as well. You try to make a compromise.
“Because, for sure, if it is a clause, you cannot go against the clause, otherwise you get the lawsuit or whatever, but it’s a good [situation] to be in.
“Mark having been an F1 driver, knowing how rarely these opportunities come along, he’s the guy who understands it if you talk with him.
“But obviously, if you don’t give him anything for it, if there is a clause, he will not be a happy man.
“You explain that you work for the team and then you try to make a deal that next year, should papaya again be the colour which is winning championships, it’s Oscar Piastri’s [turn].
“We are starting afresh and if Oscar is in a better place after five races, he gets a shot at the championship.
“It’s not only about money. It’s the money you make now and the money you can make in the future if you’re World Champion is something different, so you have to make it up.
“But maybe Mark and Oscar have got better ideas than us here and this [might be] what they want to help, but I think it’s pretty clear that Oscar cannot win the Drivers’ Championship this year.”
Martin Brundle: "That’s why Piastri won championships and ended up in a race-winning F1 car."https://t.co/FLwsgemI3Y#F1 #McLaren #LandoNorris #OscarPiastri pic.twitter.com/DgXB1Tiyce
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) September 4, 2024
Steiner went on to suggest that Webber will be mindful that team orders could prove the difference between McLaren winning or losing both World Championships in F1 2024, arguing it would not reflect well on him if Piastri does not support Norris.
He explained: “If you are seen to destroy, or not make it work, that McLaren wins two Championships instead of one, how does that go down?
“Is that a plus? No, you’re an idiot as well. So you have to calculate and Mark knows that.
“Mark has been there, has done it, I respect him a lot for what he does for Oscar. I think he’s advising him very well.
“That’s [why] Oscar came up so quick, because he has got good people around him.
“I think, with Mark, he always can talk. For sure, he wants something for it if there is a parity clause in their contact. We don’t know that yet.”
Asked to explain why McLaren have been so reluctant to enforce team orders, Steiner claimed that the team may be confident of their chances of winning the title without them.
Yet he fears the likes of Stella and chief executive Zak Brown will risk looking like “idiots” if McLaren’s title charge ultimately proves unsuccessful.
He said: “They think they can win it anyway. It’s simple. Sometimes the solution is simple.
“They think we can win it anyway, so let them fight.
“And if they win it by letting the two fight, they look great.
“[But if they lose it by letting the two fight], they look idiots.”
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