Andrea Stella insisted that placing full focus on Lando Norris as McLaren's number one driver was "not a good approach" for the last nine races of the Formula 1 season. (More Motorsport News)
Norꦡris, who won his second career race at the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend, closed the gap to Max Verstappen in the driv♐ers' championship to 70 points.
His dominance was emphasised by the result, finishing 22.896 seconds in fr💧ont of Verstappen, the largest winning margin by a driver since Lewis Hamilton in 2021.
Norris' McLaren team-mate Oscar 🌜Piastri finished fourth ജin Zandvoort, largely blamed for being caught up in traffic, which meant finishing behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
The Australian currently has 179 points in the driღvers' cha🦄mpionship standings, 46 behind Norris, and claimed his maiden win in the competition in Hungary back in July.
However, the triumph did not come without its controversy,♋ with Norris initially ignoring team orders to hand first place back to Piastri before eventually cooperating.
Zak Brown said afterwards that deciding whether to install a number one💦 driver was up to Stella, but the Italian said the pair would be treated equally.
"I think when it comes to these conversations about being the number one, I don't think that's a good way of approaching raci❀ng," Stella said.
"We'd rather approach racing from fair🍌ness, integrity, and then see what come from this kind of ap🐓proach."
Piastri is the current driver on the grid with ওthe best run of Grand Prix's finished (19). If he finishes in Monza, he will become only the se♔cond McLaren driver to finish 20 races in a row in F1 after his current team-mate Norris (21 between Abu Dhabi 2022 and Sao Paulo 2023).
McLaren's improvements have seen them ha🍃ve one or both⭕ of their drivers on the podium in the last 11 races.
The Italian Grand Prix 𓄧offers the team a chance to record their fourth best-ever run ꧂in the competition (12), with eyes on their first constructors' title since 1998.
"The first target is to win the 🔴Constructors' Championship," Piastri said.
"I think naturally, if we're closing the gap in the constructors', there🎃's probably a good chance that we're both closing it in the drivers' [championship] as well.
"I'm not that far behind Lando in the standings e🦹ither, so of course if the call comes later in the ꧋year and it's a realistic shot, then I'll do my part for the team.
&🀅quot;Buꦚt I think at the moment, the gap is big for both of us so we'll focus on just trying to do the best job that we can and see where we end up a bit later in the year.
&quo🐼t;I think for me the biggest thing is just trying to maximise every weekend.
That gives the team ꧂the most opp🐻ortunities for the constructors', that gives me the most opportunities for whatever occurs in the drivers' standings.
"If there's an opportunity for myse𒁏lf to win the drivers' standings𒈔, then I'll try my best to make sure I'm there."
