By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – McLaren are confident competition between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will not endanger the team’s Formula One championship defence if the drivers find themselves battling for the individual title.
The pair combined for six race wins last year, delivering McLaren their first constructors’ championship in 26 years, even if it was Max Verstappen claiming a fourth successive drivers’ title for Red Bull.
With McLaren impressing during winter testing in Bahrain, Norris is bookmakers’ pre-season favourite for the drivers’ championship while Piastri has also declared himself ready to contend.
Formula One history is littered with fierce intra-team rivalries that have led to crashes and wasted championship points but McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said they were in a good position with Norris and Piastri ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
“Like any other team, we have looked at what could have been done better and what we had done well last year, and actually we were quite proud of what we achieved, even in terms of internal competition,” he told reporters at Albert Park on Thursday.
“The respect, the relationship inside and outside the car, the head-to-head racing that happened at times between Lando and Oscar …
“They offered a couple of situations that we reviewed together, but offered a large majority of how we want to see our two drivers work together, race together, and this actually gave us a good reference as to how we want to continue for the future.
“That was a very, very collaborative, supportive process, and I feel that we are entering this season in a very strong position.”
Briton Norris, who had four race wins last season compared to his Australian teammates’ two, said there were no particular rules of engagement in place given the season had yet to start.
However, he said both drivers knew where the “red lines” were.
“We’re just free to race. We’re happy to go against each other and compete,” Norris told reporters.
“Of course, we have to know that we’re going to be against each other a lot this season, and I hope we are.
“But our strength last season was helping one another and always giving each other a good amount of room, racing fair, those kind of things.
“And we need to maintain that. That’s one of our biggest things as a team and our biggest goal.”
Piastri said he and Norris were starting from a clean slate.
“It’s all very clear and we’ve discussed a lot of it from last season and how we managed the backend of last year,” he said.
“I think this year we’re starting from zero again, we’re both going to be trying our best to win.”
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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