Piastri ready to 'help' Norris in title battle

McLaren's Oscar Piastri (left) and Lando Norris have won three of the past five grands prix

Oscar Piastri says McLaren are ready to use him to help Lando Norris’ championship bid if the circumstances arise at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Australian said his win in Baku last weekend has “not really changed anything” in McLaren’s approach.

“Lando is still ahead in the championship and just being honest has a more realistic chance of winning the championship,” Piastri said.

"If I am in a position to still win races, that’s what I want to do. But naturally if there are times I can help out for Lando’s championship bid, then I’ll be happy to help if I can.”

Norris, who beat Red Bull's Max Verstappen in Baku despite starting nine places behind him, heads into the Singapore weekend 59 points behind the Dutchman.

Piastri is a further 32 points behind Norris.

McLaren went into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix saying they would “bias” their approach towards Norris, as the driver closest to championship leader Verstappen.

In the end, Piasti was unable to help because Norris was caught by a yellow flag in qualifying and lined up only 15th on the grid. The Briton eventually finished fourth with Verstappen fifth.

Team principal Andrea Stella had said McLaren’s approach would be “reviewed” after Baku.

Piastri, speaking on media day in Singapore before this weekend’s grand prix, pointed to Norris’ assistance on his way to victory in Baku as an example of how McLaren want to go racing.

Norris backed up Red Bull’s Sergio Perez on the lap before Piastri made his pit stop to ensure his team-mate rejoined the track still ahead of the Mexican.

Piastri then overtook Charles Leclerc for the lead three laps later and held off the Ferrari driver for the rest of the race to win.

Piastri said: “Lando was definitely a factor in the race. He helped with some ‘tyre saving’ with Checo.”

But he said it was impossible to discuss how things might develop between the McLaren drivers in Singapore.

Piastri said: “Until you arrive in a specific situation it’s difficult to discuss apart from demonstrating it on track.”

Verstappen has not won for seven races as Red Bull’s competitiveness has declined and said he was expecting a difficult weekend in Singapore, where last year he finished fifth after qualifying 11th.

“Our car is generally not very good on bumps and kerbs and that’s what we have here,” Verstappen said.

“We have to try and stabilise it. I am confident we can do a better job than last year but the competition has improved quite a bit. I am definitely targeting Q3 but let’s see where we end up.”

Verstappen said that he was content with a plan from Red Bull to promote his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase into a role with wider responsibilities.

Following sporting director Jonathan Wheatley’s decision to move to Sauber/Audi in 2025, Red Bull will promote Lambiase to head of racing after the end of this season. He will continue to be Verstappen’s race engineer while taking on his wider role.

Verstappen said: “He already did more than being just my race engineer. It’s about spreading the load. For me, that’s fine.”