Senior figures at Red Bull have admitted they are closely following the developments regarding their 2024 championship rival, McLaren.
After two weeks of rumours about 'team orders' at McLaren, the British team has now confirmed that Oscar Piastri may need to take a secondary role to teammate Lando Norris during the remaining eight races of the season.
"We will direct our support to Lando, but we want to do this without making too many compromises on our principles," team principal Andrea Stella was quoted as saying by Bild newspaper.
"We don't want to get into situations like in Monza again," he added. "That damaged the team."
Dr Helmut Marko, a senior consultant at Red Bull, laughed when he heard the news.
"I haven't heard what Oscar Piastri says about this plan yet," Marko smiled.
Piastri told the media on Thursday that he is willing to support Norris, but both Piastri and Norris were quick to deny that this means Piastri will automatically have to sacrifice any potential wins.
"I asked Oscar if he would give up a victory," Stella explained. "He replied that it would be painful for him, but that he would do it for the team."
Despite not having the fastest car at this point, Max Verstappen still holds a 62-point lead over Norris, and he believes the internal competition at McLaren could work to Red Bull's benefit.
"I think it's quite natural, when you have two good drivers in the same team, they want to beat each other," Verstappen told Sky Italia in Baku.
"They have to do what they think is best, but they haven't been far apart in the championship all season and Oscar is also not the kind of driver you should push aside as a second driver. For us, it's an advantage that they're dealing with the situation where Piastri is closer to Lando than Lando is to me," the Dutchman continued. "At least, that's how Oscar will see it from his perspective."
"I just want to focus on our own strengths. And it's not really my problem either – I've got enough problems of my own," the three-time world champion added.
Verstappen arrived in Azerbaijan reiterating his recent comments from Monza, warning that if Red Bull doesn't improve soon, their chances of winning either championship may become "unrealistic."
Norris, who flew to Baku on Verstappen's private plane, said, "Max can say what he wants to say, but he's still more than 60 points ahead.
I have eight races to make up for that. Even if I win all eight, it's not easy.
"I'd rather be in his position than mine."
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton agrees with Norris that Verstappen remains the clear favourite for the title—and he scoffed at the suggestion that Red Bull winning the championships is unrealistic.
Hamilton said in Baku, "Did he really say that? I mean, he's really quite far ahead. I don't know what else to say about that."
Regarding Marko, he notices parallels between McLaren's present circumstances and Red Bull's failed effort to catch Jenson Button at Brawn back in 2009.
The 81-year-old recalled, "Back then, we had the fastest car from the middle of the season and yet Button won the world championship.
We were too prone to making mistakes back then and didn't have the right strategy. It's similar at McLaren, otherwise our lead would already be much smaller."
