George Russell believes McLaren’s Abu Dhabi team order stance isn’t “acceptable or reasonable”, as Oscar Piastri could be moved aside to help Lando Norris’s title bid.
McLaren has resisted favouring one of its drivers despite Max Verstappen’s ever-threatening title challenge, and it won’t explicitly favour Norris for Abu Dhabi despite his 16-point advantage over Piastri, with Verstappen between them, 12 points adrift.
But on the eve of the Abu Dhabi GP, The Race revealed McLaren has opened the door to implementing team orders on Sunday if it becomes clear it’s the only way for a McLaren driver to win the title.
One such scenario could be if Verstappen is leading and Piastri and Norris are running third and fourth, then a swap would ensure Norris wins the title instead of Verstappen.
The McLaren drivers say this hasn’t yet been discussed with them but those conversations will take place later in the weekend.
But in the view of Russell - who could act as a potential spoiler in the title fight should Mercedes have the pace to threaten McLaren and Red Bull this weekend - McLaren issuing such an order to Piastri wouldn’t be fair.
“I don’t think it’s acceptable or reasonable to ask a driver who also has a shot of the championship in the very last race to move over for your team-mate,” Russell said.
“I think if it’s in other seasons gone by, let’s say Checo [Perez] and Max [at Red Bull] or, you know, [Rubens] Barrichello and [Michael] Schumacher [at Ferrari], clearly when one driver is going for the championship and the guy who doesn’t have a shot of winning the championship moves over, that is absolutely reasonable - I think every single driver would do that.
“But for me, I don’t think it would be fair at all [this year]. I think they both need to be given a shot.
“And if they lose out of because of it, you just need to say the other guy did a better job and that’s racing. That’s how it should be.”
Norris would ‘love’ team orders he won’t ask for
Norris and Piastri were sat side-by-side in F1’s pre-event title contender press conference.
Norris was asked about the prospect of team orders in the finale.
“It’s not been discussed, honestly, I would love it, but I don’t think I would ask it because I don’t know…it’s up to Oscar if he’d allow it, I don’t think it’s necessarily down to me,” Norris said.
“Same if it was the other way around, would I be willing to or not? Personally I think I would just because I feel like I’m always like that and that’s just how I am.
“But it’s not really up to me. I’m not going to ask it, I don’t want to ask it, I don’t think it’s necessarily a fair question.
“If that’s how it ends and Max wins, then that’s it. Congrats to him, look forward to next year, doesn’t change anything, doesn’t change my life, he’ll deserve it over us.”
As for Piastri, he said “I don’t really have an answer until I know what’s expected of me”, given McLaren hasn’t had those discussions with its drivers yet.
