McLaren are set to prioritise Lando Norris over team-mate Oscar Piastri in their bid to win both Formula One championship titles, starting in Baku this weekend.
McLaren currently sit second in the constructors' championship, eight points behind Red Bull, with both Norris and Piastri also in the top five of the drivers' standings.
Having tossed and turned about how to attack the final eight races of the season, the British-based team have opted to back Norris ahead of the Australian.
However, Andrea Stella said the decision to back the Brit in dethroning Max Verstappen would only happen within the team's principles of sportsmanship and fairness.
"The overall concept is we are incredibly determined to win, but we want to win in the right way," Stella said.
Norris arrives at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix off the back of a third-placed finish in Monza, coming in six seconds behind team-mate Piastri.
But Norris was able to add 16 points to his drivers' championship tally, closing the gap to Verstappen to 62 points after the Dutchman finished in sixth.
Piastri finds himself 106 points behind Verstappen, but Stella continued to reiterate McLaren's 'papaya rules'.
"We [will] bias our support to Lando but we want to do it without too much compromise on our principles," he said.
"Our principles are that the team interest always comes first. Sportsmanship for us is important in the overall way we go racing.
"And then we want to be fair to both drivers."
Until now, McLaren had allowed Norris and Piastri to race each other without interference from the team.
But a series of meetings at McLaren have resulted in a shift in policy after failing to capitalise on a one-two in qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix last time out.
Norris, who started on pole, endured another slow start out of the blocks, allowing Piastri to narrowly squeeze past his team-mate on the opening lap.
But in doing so, it allowed Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to position himself between the two McLarens, with the Monegasque eventually roaring to victory on Italian soil.
"What we don't want to see any more is a situation like in Monza in which we enter a chicane P1/P2, and we exit P1/P3, because that is a detriment to the team," Stella said.
"The team interests come first and these are the situations that above all we need to fix, because eventually, as a matter of fact, the way we entered the race in Monza left the door open for this situation.
"After Monza, three objectives: we need to make sure that anything that happens on track is not to the detriment of the team.
"Second objective, how do we win both championships, both drivers committed to help? But what we don't want to do is win in a reckless way.
"Those are the three topics and they define the way we go racing in Baku. This will be updated after Baku."
Verstappen triumphed in seven of the first 10 races of the 2024 season, with the Dutchman looking destined to run away with the drivers' championship once again.
But Red Bull's recent struggles on the track have been alarming, with Verstappen now six grands prix without a victory (his worst streak since the penultimate GP of 2020 when he went 11 in a row).
It has allowed Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren to catch up in the respective championship standings, with Red Bull left bemused as to why a once-dominant car has seen its performance drop so dramatically.
But another team's misfortune has certainly been McLaren's gain, with Stella assuring that both Norris and Piastri were onboard with the shift in philosophy.
"The conversations have been very collaborative," Stella concluded.
"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'.
"Every driver is hard-wired to go for a victory. So I am always very impressed by the level of team spirit and maturity and collaboration that we found in this period."
DRIVERS TO WATCH
Lando Norris - McLaren
With all the talk surrounding Norris ahead of this weekend's race in Baku, the Brit will be keen to make amends and continue his pursuit of Verstappen.
For the first time in 2024, Norris has finished ahead of the Dutchman in two straight races. Throughout Verstappen's dry spell, the Brit has only closed the gap on him by seven points in the drivers' championship, though.
While Norris' full focus will be on closing the gap to Verstappen, he has the opportunity to put himself among the elite British racers to have competed in the competition.
The 24-year-old is one podium away from equalling Stirling Moss and John Surtees to enter the top 10 of British drivers with the most podiums (24).
If he does achieve that feat, David Coulthard (62) and Eddie Irvine (26) will be the only British non-world champions who have achieved more podiums than Norris in the history of F1.
But there is also a lot at stake for McLaren. They are now just eight points behind Red Bull in the constructors' standings, knowing a better finish than their opponents will see them top the rankings for the first time since Brazil in 2005.
And they have reason for optimism too. McLaren have seen one or both of their drivers stand on the podium in each of the last 12 races in the competition.
Should they do so again in Baku, it will equal the team's second-best run in the history of the competition (13, which it recorded on two other occasions, between the United States and Portugal in 1990, and Germany 2011 and China 2012), only behind a sequence of 19 between Australia 2007 and Malaysia 2008.
Sergio Perez - Red Bull
No one saw Red Bull's recent struggles coming after a dominant start to the season, but they could spring a surprise with a driver who relishes the Baku street circuit.
Sergio Perez is still waiting to add to his five wins he has managed with the Austrian-based team, but he may be confident of adding to that tally in Azerbaijan.
This weekend's grand prix will be the circuit's seventh appearance in the F1 calendar, with the Mexican the only driver to prevail twice around the Baku track (2021 and 2023).
In fact, it is the only grand prix where the Mexican has won more than one race in his career.
Given his impressive form in Azerbaijan, Perez has also scored the most points (100) in Baku, the only track on which he has reached the 100-point mark.
Only a Lewis Hamilton victory and fastest lap would see the seven-time world champion overtake Perez this time around (75 points for Hamilton).
However, the Mexican has now gone 10 consecutive grands prix without finishing in the top five of the standings, the same number of times as in his previous 41 races in the competition.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Drivers
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 303
Lando Norris (McLaren) - 241
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 217
Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 197
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) - 184
Constructors
Red Bull - 446
McLaren - 438
Ferrari - 407
Mercedes - 292
Aston Martin - 74
Ricciardo to leave RB with Lawson named as replacement
Daniel Ricciardo will leave RB with Liam Lawson replacing him for the remainder of the Formula One season.
Speculation surrounding Ricciardo's future has been confirmed as the Australian's second F1 stint was brought to an end after he lost his seat at RB.
Ricciardo is 14th in the drivers' championship standings, while he recorded the fastest lap during last weekend's Singapore Grand Prix - the 258th and final race of his F1 career.
The 35-year-old has chalked up eight wins and 32 podiums along the way, notably finishing third in the drivers' championship in 2014 and 2016.
Lawson, who deputised for the injured Ricciardo in five races last season, will step up from his reserve role to partner Yuki Tsunoda for the final six races of the 2024 campaign, starting at next month's United States Grand Prix in Austin.
The 22-year-old recorded an impressive ninth-place finish in Singapore during his short stint, and RB boss Laurent Mekies feels it will be "a natural transition" for him.
"Everyone would like to thank Daniel for his hard work across the last two seasons with us," Mekies said.
"He has brought a lot of experience and talent to the team with a fantastic attitude, which has helped everyone to develop and foster a tight team spirit.
"Daniel has been a true gentleman both on and off the track, and never without that smile. He will be missed, but will always hold a special place within the Red Bull family.
"I'd also like to take this opportunity to welcome Liam. He already knows the team well. He drove for us last season, and coped well under difficult circumstances, so it'll be a natural transition.
"It's great to see young talent from within the Red Bull family make the next step. We're looking forward to getting our heads down and focusing on the rest of the season together."
Norris: Overhauling Verstappen for F1 championship 'definitely possible'
Lando Norris believes overhauling Max Verstappen to win the Formula One driver's championship is "definitely possible", though he knows McLaren have no room for error.
Norris produced a magnificent performance at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, leading from the front and finishing some 20 seconds clear of Verstappen.
That victory – his third of the year – lifted him to within 52 points of Verstappen at the top of the drivers' standings, while McLaren lead Red Bull by 41 points in the battle for the constructors' crown.
Norris has now won from pole in two of the last four races (Singapore and the Netherlands), becoming the 49th driver to achieve that feat on at least two occasions in F1.
In the last 30 grands prix in which Norris has scored points, he has averaged 15.3 points (460 in total), having only averaged 6.8 across his previous 66 (452 in total).
With Verstappen now winless in eight races, Norris does not see ending his three-year reign as an impossible objective, if McLaren can maintain their pace.
"This is what I've got to do, this is what I need, this is what we need to do as a team," Norris told Sky Sports F1.
"We've executed things perfectly as a team, especially to get Oscar [Piastri] into P3, but we need to do it at every race until the end of the year if I want to have a chance to get Max.
"We're working hard and if I keep doing what I've done this weekend, then it's definitely possible."
Verstappen won 19 of 22 races in the 2023 season – the most dominant campaign ever witnessed in F1 – but Norris hopes he can take this year's title battle to the final race, set for Abu Dhabi on December 8.
"I hope so. I still have a lot of points I've got to catch up and it's not going to be easy to do it," Norris added.
"It's against Red Bull and it's against Max, the most dominant pairing you've ever seen in Formula One, from last year.
"That's not necessarily changed in terms of… It's the same team and it's the same driver. So, I have some of the toughest competition that Formula One has ever seen.
"I'm working my heart out, I'm working my butt off, to try and make sure that happens. He's trying to make sure it doesn't happen. So we'll have to wait and find out."
Red Bull would be 'foolish' not to target Russell, says Horner
Red Bull would be "foolish" not to consider an approach for George Russell when his Mercedes contract expires next year, says team principal Christian Horner.
While three-time world champion Max Verstappen is under contract with Red Bull until 2028, the poor form of team-mate Sergio Perez has cast doubt on their lineup.
Perez started 2024 with four podium finishes in his first five races, but he has since endured a run of 13 outings without a top-three finish to slip to eighth in the drivers' championship.
Russell is set to become Mercedes' lead driver for 2025 when Lewis Hamilton joins Ferrari, but with the Silver Arrows' team principal Toto Wolff repeatedly talking up the possibility of moving for Verstappen, his long-term future is in doubt.
With Russell's contract expiring after next season, Horner says Red Bull could swoop for him to fill a "gap" between their current drivers and those coming through their academy.
"We've got a gap now but we just want to take time to consider what those options look like for the future," Horner told Sky Sports F1.
"And we're not afraid to go out of the pool. You know, George Russell is out of contract at the end of next year. It would be foolish not to take that into consideration.
"There are other talented drivers that could well be out of contract as well."
Russell claimed his second F1 race win in Austria earlier this year and currently sits seventh in the drivers' standings, 11 points ahead of Perez.
Horner's comments on Russell were put to Mercedes boss Wolff, who accused his counterpart of "stirring".
"He is always stirring s*** up on his part," Wolff said. "It's part of the game.
"George is a Mercedes driver, has been forever and hopefully will be forever. He has a long contract with the team."
The Silver Arrows endured a frustrating outing at last weekend's Singapore Grand Prix, Hamilton finishing fourth and Russell sixth after early difficulties with the team's split strategy.
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