Lando Norris does not merit clear number one status at McLaren, even amid his growing battle for the title against Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
This perspective comes from former Red Bull driver Robert Doornbos, following the Italian Grand Prix.
At Monza, Oscar Piastri stretched the limits of McLaren's newly established "Papaya rules" by overtaking Norris, who started from pole, on the very first lap.
According to seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, the two McLaren drivers then pushed their cars so aggressively that they effectively eliminated the possibility of using the successful one-stop strategy that Ferrari's Charles Leclerc employed.
"They were doing much too fast laps early on and killed their tyres," said Hamilton. "I was getting the information of the times they were doing, and there's no way your tyres are going to last at that pace."
Additionally, many experts argued after the race that McLaren is making a significant error by not firmly establishing Norris as the undisputed number 1 driver, especially as he seeks to close the current 62-point gap to Verstappen.
Meanwhile, Australian driver Piastri trails by a further 44 points behind the other orange car.
"I thought it was interesting that the British press stood up for Norris," Doornbos told Ziggo Sport. "I completely disagree with them."
He continued, "McLaren cannot favour one driver, because Oscar Piastri will not accept it and he was simply the faster driver in Italy."
Doornbos also criticized Norris, stating that he makes "too many mistakes" to justify McLaren deciding to consistently favour him going forwards.
"If you are flawless, and you keep the lead in the first lap—which he did not succeed in doing, and that was the seventh time in a row—then you can maybe ask for it (number 1 status)," the Dutchman said.
"But right now, he is not worthy of having the team fully behind only him. You can't be going off in the second Lesmo, and you have to make sure you don't almost smash the sign into pieces when you enter the pitlane."
On the flip side, Norris' primary chance of securing the 2024 championship would be if McLaren instructs Piastri to refrain from continuing to take points away from his teammate.
"We've always believed in having two number 1 drivers," McLaren CEO Zak Brown insists.
"That has always been McLaren's way, and it can be very difficult to manage."
He added, "You know how it was with you and Lewis," Brown said to his Sky interviewer, Nico Rosberg. "And we saw it with Senna and Prost."
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who dealt with the Rosberg-Hamilton title battle, sympathizes with McLaren's predicament.
"It's a difficult tightrope to walk and there's no universal truth about how to deal with it," he said.
"Ultimately, you don't want to lose a championship by three or five points that you could have easily gotten."
Wolff also believes McLaren team principal Andrea Stella is well aware of the challenge.
"He has seen it all happen several times before his eyes at Ferrari," Wolff stated. "He has that racer's soul that doesn't want to do it and wants to let them race, but I think they will come to a conclusion about how they are going to handle it after this race."
