Ricciardo wanted to pass Norris at the start of the Azerbaijan GP, Norris wanted to pass Ricciardo at the end. McLaren barred its drivers from making any moves and explained why
Starting 11th and 12th in the Azerbaijan GP, respectively, Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo were put on different strategies by McLaren. While the Briton started the race in Baku on medium tires and, on the 20th lap, switched to hard tires, the Australian did the opposite: initial stint on white stripe compounds and switch to yellow stripe.
The different strategies enabled Ricciardo to undercut his teammate and stay ahead. However, the Australian had already claimed on the radio that he was faster than Norris on the track and, therefore, could overtake him. McLaren dismissed such a scenario.
The same happened at the end of the race, but, again, in reverse: Norris was the fastest McLaren driver, immediately behind Ricciardo. The Briton asked to pass, but the Woking team denied his proposal - and his boss, Andreas Seidl, justified the use of the always controversial team orders.
"I think what we heard on the radio is what you would want to hear from every driver: to be ambitious and try to have the best possible race for yourself. That's why there is a team, so that there is a guarantee that we would come out with the best possible scenario, without the risk of losing both cars to a collision between them," Seidl began to speak. "If Daniel (Ricciardo) had overtaken Lando (Norris) early in the race, we would have a 'yo-yo' on our hands - as we have seen with other teams this year. But the two would still be stuck behind (Fernando) Alonso and running the risk of (Esteban) Ocon overtaking at least one of them," he analyzed.
"Our idea was to hold the position of the two cars behind Alonso, with the certainty that we would hold Ocon - which we did," the McLaren boss justified. In fact, Ricciardo (8th) and Norris (9th) finished the race behind Alonso (7th), but ahead of Ocon (10th).
Asked about McLaren's guidelines on the use of team orders, Seidl was keen to clarify that they only happened in Baku because of Ricciardo and Norris' "different strategies."
"It depends on the circumstances. Our drivers are free to compete and we always try to provide them with the same opportunities, because that is our responsibility. But if we are on different strategies or something like that, obviously you have to make sure that as a team you maximize the results," the Woking team boss concluded.