Everyone loves a good team orders debate.
For as long as there have been teammates in motorsport, teams have reserved the right to instruct them follow orders.
But despite this long tradition of legal interference, team orders never fail to generate controversy.
Austria 2002. Fernando is faster than you. Multi 21. For every person who sees team orders as legitimate — necessary, even — tactics by teams to maximise their results, there’s another person who considers them nothing short of race fixing.
Now McLaren is wading into the fray. Will Azerbaijan 2024 be the latest chapter in Formula 1’s long history of team orders?
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WHAT WILL McLAREN’S TEAM ORDERS LOOK LIKE?
After weeks of consideration, McLaren has finally pulled the trigger. Lando Norris will have his season prioritised over Oscar Piastri to maximise his chance of closing the gap to Max Verstappen in the drivers championship.
The title table has made the call inevitable.
Norris is 62 points behind Verstappen, whereas Piastri is 106 points off the lead.
While both McLaren drivers are still in mathematical contention — in fact everyone down to George Russell in eighth is still in with a theoretical shout — Norris is the only driver who can close the gap without needing Verstappen to make mistakes or run into bad luck.
But the call has been made difficult by the fact Norris isn’t in compelling form. Piastri has beaten him in three of the last four races and outscored him over the last nine weekends.
That’s made this a deeper ethical issue than it might have been had Norris simply bossed Piastri all year, and it’s required McLaren to seek the Melburnian’s buy-in to get it done.
“The conversations have been very collaborative,” McLaren boss Andrea Stella told the BBC. “Even when I said to Oscar, ‘Would you be available to give up a victory?’ he said, ‘It’s painful, but if it’s the right thing to do now, I will do it’.”
What will it look like in practice?
For example, the team was criticised for allowing its drivers to battle on the first lap in Monza, a decision that ultimately led to Piastri and then, as a result, Charles Leclerc getting past Norris at the Roggia chicane.
Would that now warrant team intervention?
But attempting to micromanage the first lap of a grand prix is a recipe for disaster. Imagine if Piastri had been required to hold station behind Norris but in doing so allowed the faster Leclerc to get past both. There are simply too many variables to consider.
Avoiding the temptation to overengineer will be crucial.
McLaren hasn’t outlined specific policies, saying only that it won’t be heavy handed. Norris says Piastri won’t be expected to concede victories, and Stella says both drivers are still free to race — though it’s hard to understand how that could be practicable.
The team will be juggling this race-by-race conundrum while also keeping its eyes on the constructors championship, having closed the gap to Red Bull Racing to just eight points. While momentum is with McLaren, there’s no guarantee Milton Keynes won’t rise again to make this a real fight. Ferrari is also only 31 points further back.
It’s a tricky situation for McLaren management to handle. It needs to find a way to get Norris finishing consistently ahead of Piastri without requiring Piastri to slow down too much and without them racing each other too hard, and it’ll need to do this for eight grands prix in a row while also battling to stay ahead of Verstappen as well as Ferrari and Mercedes.
No-one said winning the title double would be easy.
Lando takes aim at Piastri’s overtake | 03:19
CAN PÉREZ SAVE HIS SEAT — AND WHAT WILL THAT MEAN FOR RICCIARDO?
In any other season Sergio Pérez would have arrived in Azerbaijan as the favourite for victory.
Remarkably the Mexican is the form man in Baku. Not only is he the reigning winner — and reigning sprint winner — but he’s the most successful driver in the history of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, being the only person to have won the race twice.
It’s the track on which his ‘king of streets’ reputation is based and is one of the few circuits at which he once genuinely appeared to have Verstappen’s number in equal machinery.
But for obvious reasons Pérez won’t be the man to beat this weekend.
The Mexican hasn’t looked like winning a race all year. He hasn’t even finished on the podium since April.
His form slump is so dire that Red Bull Racing briefly appeared to have made the decision to drop him ahead of the mid-season break before changing its mind and retaining him for an explicitly indefinite period of time, with Christian Horner saying only that he was looking forward “to seeing him perform at tracks he has previously excelled at after the summer break”.
His record in the Netherlands is poor, and he has only a couple of podiums to show for his history in Italy.
Azerbaijan and Singapore — where he’s also a winner — are therefore the true tests of his ability to recover some semblance of form and save his skin.
Of course victory won’t be expected, not least because the RB20 will probably be battling just to finish on the podium. Ironically Red Bull Racing’s sharp downturn might even shield Pérez from scrutiny given he can now say that the car, not just his slump, is playing a role in the team losing control of the constructors championship.
But his fate is now inextricably tied to Daniel Ricciardo, whose future in the sport appears to depend on whether Red Bull Racing decides to boot the Mexican.
That’s because reserve driver Liam Lawson is tipped to get Ricciardo’s seat at RB next season, with an option on the Kiwi’s contract needing to be taken up this month lest he become a free agent, albeit without an obvious alternative destination.
Ricciardo is also a Baku winner, having famously risen from 17th to victory in chaotic circumstances in 2017.
But RB is also suffering a decline in form. The upgrade brought to Yuki Tsunoda’s car in Italy appeared to be more of a downgrade — somewhat alarming given the team’s previous new floor, introduced in Spain in May, likewise did more harm than good.
For better or worse, Ricciardo will receive the team’s new parts this weekend.
Much like Pérez, headline results aren’t important. Only beating Tsunoda matters if he’s to uphold his end of the bargain by looking like a credible alternative to the long-struggling Mexican in the senior team.
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F1 legend makes huge Aston Martin switch | 01:03
CAN RED BULL RACING HAUL ITSELF BACK FROM THE BRINK?
Just how bad is Red Bull Racing?
That’s the question that’s been on the lips of the paddock since the team’s horror Italian Grand Prix performance.
The RB20 was the fourth fastest car, slipping behind not only McLaren — which is now the presumptive favourite at every circuit — but also Ferrari and Mercedes.
Verstappen and Pérez qualified seventh and eighth, with the Dutchman gaining one place in the race only because Russell crashed on the first lap.
He was lucky not to have lost significantly more points to Norris in the title race, but McLaren still dealt it a hefty blow in the constructors standings, where RBR’s advantage is down to just eight points.
The last time Red Bull Racing wasn’t atop the championship table was the 2022 Miami Grand Prix, 55 races ago.
To avoid breaking that streak it’ll need to hope for a wild reversal in form.
On paper Baku is no longer be a happy track for Red Bull Racing. The car doesn’t like riding the kerbs. It doesn’t like bumpy surfaces. It’s difficult to set up with the predictable balance drivers need to feel confident enough to get intimate with the barriers.
While few think Monza is the norm, Red Bull Racing’s biggest problem might not be that it’s cornered itself with a recalcitrant car.
Both Ferrari and Mercedes have caught up, while it’s been struggling to troubleshoot its problems.
Ferrari in particular will be a threat this weekend.
The SF-24 loves everything the RB20 hates. It’s at home riding the kerbs and getting the power down out of slow corners. It can be set up to inspire confidence between the barriers.
It also has a strong track record here, Charles Leclerc having taken the last three poles and having finished on the podium last season.
Mercedes is more difficult to read, the team worried that its latest floor has made the car too difficult to set up — a problem that could sting at a track as quirky as this.
But the fact we’re talking about these other teams relative to Red Bull Racing tells you all you need to know about the reigning constructors champion.
It’s no longer in control of the narrative, and by Sunday night it’s unlikely to be in control of the championship.
‘Change the whole car’ – Max not happy | 01:35
WILL THE BEARMAN SEQUEL BE AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL?
Oliver Bearman’s last-minute substitution of the surgery-bound Carlos Sainz at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this year was one of the great stand-in performances.
The Briton had only a single practice session to acclimatise to his Ferrari around arguably the most dangerous track on the Formula 1 calendar. He qualified 11th but finished an impressive seventh after a smooth and clean Sunday.
Already tipped for a Haas seat in 2025, his slick performance sealed the deal.
It’s a good thing too, because his sophomore Formula 2 campaign has been markedly less impressive.
Bearman has been smacked around by rookie teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
The 19-year-old has collected two victories — both in sprint races — and only five other points finishes to sit 14th with three rounds to go.
Antonelli has a sprint and a feature victory among his regular points finishes to sit sixth.
Of course Antonelli — now confirmed as Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 Mercedes replacement — is regarded as a generational talent, but so too has Bearman been talked about with considerable regard, in particular by Ferrari, who’s backed his junior career.
It’s what makes this weekend so interesting when he substitutes for the suspended Kevin Magnussen, the Dane having accumulated a 12th penalty point on his licence in Italy last time out.
In many respects it’s a low-pressure outing. He already has a contract, and Haas is absolutely committed to him. He also knows the track well, having dominated the Baku F2 weekend last year.
But given his tough F2 season, how he fares in Baku could cast his Jeddah performance in a new light and set the tone for his rookie season in 2025.
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WHAT CAN AUSSIE JUNIOR MANSELL DO WITH HIS F2 CHANCE?
After securing a top-five championship finish in Formula 3, which concluded its season in Monza last fortnight, Christian Mansell has earnt himself a sudden promotion to Formula 2 starting this weekend.
Mansell will jump from ART to Trident, where he’ll replace Melbourne sprint winner Roman Staněk for the rest of the season, which continues at the Qatar Grand Prix before ending in Abu Dhabi.
“It will be a fiery debut on a challenging track like the Azerbaijani one, but I must confess I’m more excited than nervous,” Mansell said.
It’s a massive tick of approval for the Maitland native, with Trident team manager Giacomo Ricci describing him as “one of the most talented emerging drivers we have seen this year”.
“Christian is a complete driver, quick in qualifying, and extremely good at managing tyres and overtaking.
“Making his debut in Baku will certainly be an ambitious goal, not easy at all.
“We have carried out dedicated preparation work with him, and I am convinced that it will pay dividends, especially if there will be no interruptions in the free practice session.
“I am sure there are all the conditions to do well.”
But more than validation of Mansell’s efforts, this three-race run is a crucial audition for a seat in 2025 and the chance to continue his climb towards Formula 1.
All three circuits — Baku, Lusail and Yas Marina — will be new to him, as will the car and the team. He has a lot of learning to do and not much time to do it in, but some strong results to close the year could be pivotal to his career.