Jenson Button wants to see Lando Norris given priority over Oscar Piastri for the remainder of the season to give the British driver the best chance of catching Max Verstappen.
Norris trails Verstappen by 52 points heading into the final six races of the campaign.
It’s advantage to McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship with Norris and Oscar Piastri doing their part to overtake Red Bull.
The Australian driver is also chasing down Charles Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship for third spot.
Max Verstappen holds a 52-point lead over Lando Norris
Reuters
However, Button feels McLaren team principal Andrea Stella will need to step in and give preference to Norris entering the business end of the season.
The 2009 world champion pointed to the strategy Ferrari would deploy with Michael Schumacher to ensure he held off any challenge from his rivals.
Button praised Piastri for the job he’s done in his second F1 season, but said if McLaren harbour any hopes of toppling Verstappen then Norris will need to be backed in a similar manner to Schumacher at Ferrari.
“I love that there are no team orders because as a racing driver, you hate them,” Button said on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
“But at some point, if you want to win a World Championship, you need to favour one driver, especially at this point in the championship where every single point counts right now for Lando.
“If he has any opportunity on becoming a world champion in 2024, he needs every single point, and that’s even using Oscar to grab the fastest lap if Max has got it in a race.
“So it’s a really tricky situation for a driver, for drivers in a team and for a team. But it’s got to happen.
“That’s the reason why Ferrari won so many world championships with Michael Schumacher.
Lando Norris is 42 points ahead of his McLaren team-mate
REUTERS
“In a way, why [Sebastian] Vettel was able to win so many world championships.
“I think that sometimes you’ve got to bite the bullet and you need to, you need to favour one driver, especially at this point of the season.
“Yeah, Oscar’s done an amazing job this year. But Lando has more points and a good amount more points.
LATEST SPORT NEWS:
McLaren sit top of the Constructors’ Championship
PA
“So if the team want to win, not just the constructors, but the drivers as well this year, that’s what’s going to have to happen.”
McLaren are on track to win their first Constructors’ Championship since 1998 when David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen was still driving for them.
But Verstappen will fancy his chances at the Circuit of the Americas track having won the race for three consecutive years.