McLaren admits there is no “easy solution” to the Formula 1 team’s headaches

McLaren has admitted its approach to team orders makes life difficult for itself, but says there is no “easy solution” that doesn't risk upsetting one of its drivers.

The Woking-based squad successfully emerged from the sprint race in Brazil with a one-two victory after swapping cars to support Lando Norris in his quest to win the World Championship.

However, the situation was far from easy as Norris was behind Oscar Piastri at the start of the race and the team risked the Briton being exposed to the attack from Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen right behind him.

While a window occasionally seemed to open in the early stages of the 24-lap sprint, prompting Piastri to let Norris through, the team allowed the race to continue until two laps to go – at the risk of a virtual safety car for Nico Hülkenberg's stranded Haas threatened forced himself to make the exchange happen.

However, McLaren was lucky that neither Leclerc nor Verstappen were able to keep up with Norris, because as they had not changed cars earlier there was a risk that they would never have the opportunity to do so before the checkered flag.

Team boss Andrea Stella has admitted that the team's order situation is difficult to manage – but points out that there is no solution that completely satisfies the team and both drivers.

“It is natural that we make life difficult for ourselves because when you have two drivers who can win races and a car that can win races, the first thing you have to do is accept that there is no easy solution,” he said told Motorsport.com.

“That already puts you in a good mindset to deal with the potential difficulties.

“But as I have said in the past, we have worked very hard to get ourselves into this difficult situation – and we all agree: team and driver.

“I always discuss with the drivers and say that this is the most difficult thing we face in our careers because it is the one thing we cannot handle if our interests are exactly aligned.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, 2nd place, Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 1st place, congratulate each other

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Why McLaren delayed the change

McLaren went into the Brazil Sprint crystal clear that the ultimate goal was to get Norris to the finish ahead of Piastri.

However, it was not yet clear how this would be implemented in the race, particularly because the team could not be sure how its competitors would engage.

Explaining the outcome of the calls, Stella said the team had agreed with both drivers that they would continue driving as normal – with the priority of not letting other cars get in the way.

The idea then was to swap cars once the pair reached the point where the gap behind Norris was large enough so that leader Piastri was not in danger of being overtaken by someone else.

Stella added: “We knew we wanted to swap. But we waited for the right distance behind Lando, because if you swap and the other car goes into DRS, we could jeopardize one of the principles, which is the maximum result for the team.

“So we watched and ideally waited a few seconds (gap), but repeated that for a few laps.”

Stella said that the risk of forcing a change too early was too great if the gap behind Norris did not remain large enough over several laps.

“The gaps in the sectors shifted a bit and I didn't feel entirely comfortable facing Oscar Leclerc because at one point early in the race Leclerc didn't seem slow at all.

“Even when the two seconds came up, the next lap it was 1.2 seconds. We were waiting for the right opportunity.

“We didn’t want to get upset and then create a situation that didn’t maximize the result for the team. We knew we had time to do it unless there was a risk of a safety car.

“And when we recognized the danger of a safety car towards the end of the race, we had to speed up the process.”

Photos from the Brazilian GP sprint