McLaren reveal Lando Norris 'superpower' behind team order swap

McLaren has credited Lando Norris' "superpower" for the team's decision to swap him ahead of Oscar Piastri during the United States Grand Prix.

Norris passed his team-mate on lap eight at the Circuit of the Americas after Piastri was effectively told to cede position, with the Briton going on to finish fifth while the Australian came home seventh.

Team principal Andrea Stella said Norris had looked quicker than Piastri throughout the weekend at a circuit whose bumps and shifting grip levels tend to suit a more reactive driving style.

Speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, Stella said: "We had seen during the weekend that Lando was a little bit faster than Oscar.

"It is a track on which Lando excels, and is one of the tracks on which Oscar struggles a little more. This year, in particular for Oscar, is tricky because Oscar's superpower is to build.

"Once he creates references, he can really, effectively build lap after lap. But every lap [at COTA] is different, and these are the conditions that challenge Oscar.

"And they are the conditions where Lando uses his own superpower, which is being very adaptive to the conditions, especially as the car slides.

"Given this context, we discussed before the race that if Lando was behind Oscar, and Oscar could not keep up with the cars ahead, then we could give Lando a chance to see if we could attack the cars ahead, and that's what we did."

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McLaren 'reinforced' particular point

Stella framed the decision as evidence that both drivers remain committed to McLaren's collective interests following the tension of Singapore, where the team principal had previously called the sprint clash a serious compromise of the constructors' effort against Red Bull.

Norris' attempted move at Turn 5 spun Piastri into the wall and triggered an internal review at Woking.

McLaren chose not to sanction Norris for that incident after he accepted responsibility, but the team made clear the lessons from Singapore were still fresh when the swap decision was made in Austin.

"It's a way of demonstrating that, as a team and together with the drivers, we care about the interest of the team, which is always the conversation that we have had, and especially after Singapore," said Stella.

"We reinforced how much it is important that, all together, we help McLaren get back to the position that we want to have, which is Oscar and Lando on the first row in qualifying, fighting for the win, and then we manage the internal competition.

"But up to then, all together we need to sustain the trajectory of McLaren back to the front."