Guenther Steiner McLaren suggestion shot down: 'Not a cat in hell's chance'

Guenther Steiner has been told there is "not a cat in hell's chance" McLaren will prioritise one of its drivers at this stage in the F1 title race to combat the threat of the back-in-form Max Verstappen.

Four-time F1 champion Verstappen has won the last two grands prix in Italy and Azerbaijan from pole position to close the gap on long-time leader Oscar Piastri to 69 points, with the Australian's team-mate Lando Norris a further 25 points adrift.

Former F1 team principal Steiner suggested McLaren "has to change the papaya rules" based on the increased threat from Verstappen, and that team boss Andrea Stella should "support one driver [to win the title]. They maybe should have done that a little bit earlier".

Steiner added: "Obviously, they want to be fair, even wanting to lose a world championship by being fair, I wouldn't do that."

Steiner's proposition, however, has been given short shrift by RacingNews365 lead editor Ian Parkes in the latest edition of the website's podcast, which you can catch here.

"You can't prioritise one driver over another, given the gap between the two," said Parkes. "It's 25 points.

"Let's run a hypothetical scenario this weekend [for the Singapore Grand Prix]. Max wins, let's say Lando second, Oscar third, because Lando quite comfortably had the edge over Oscar last year.

"So the gap [from Verstappen] to Lando is down to 37 points, and 59 points to Oscar, and the the gap between Lando and Oscar has come down by another three points, so that's 22.

"Yes, Max might be coming up fast because he's now won three grand prix in a row, for argument's sake, hypothetical again, but do you honestly think Andreas Stella is going to turn around to Lando Norris and say to him, 'Sorry, mate, Max is coming really strong here, he's won the last three grands prix, I know you're only 22 points behind Oscar, but we're going to prioritise Oscar now for the championship'.

"Not a cat in hell's chance is that ever going to happen.

"They've got to continue to let those two guys race as hard and as fast as they can, relying on the dominance that they've had up until that point, the strength of that car, believing that it will be good at certain circuits over Red Bull."

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Verstappen to be tested in Singapore

Parkes feels the situation will become clearer this weekend regarding the performance of the RB21 that was supreme around Monza and the Baku City Circuit following the addition of a new floor and associated components.

Verstappen has never won in Singapore, and it remains to be seen if the new floor will allow him the opportunity to end that drought given the high downforce levels required for the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in stark contrast to the low downforce needed for Monza and Baku. 

"We're going to know more about that RB21 out of this weekend's grand prix in Singapore, more than either of the past two grand prix, that's for certain," said Parkes.

"[For McLaren] it's going to be focusing on those two guys, maximising what they can get out of those two guys every weekend because even if that's the top-three pecking order, it's going to take something catastrophic for Max to overhaul both, never mind just one of them. There's still a lot that's got to happen.

"We saw something catastrophic happen to Oscar [in Baku, crashing in qualifying and the race], but we're probably talking about that's got to happen for another two of the upcoming grand prix to really thrust Max into the equation.

"And it's got to happen for both drivers as well, not just Oscar in isolation. There has to be retirements on both sides of the McLaren garage to help Max, to thrust himself fully into contention for this title.

"Because as I say, 69 points and 44 points, that's still a big margin to overcome, even though there's 199 on the table."