McLaren warned to expect 'talks' over latest team orders flare-up

Zak Brown should be expecting to hold talks with Oscar Piastri's manager Mark Webber, reckons former F1 driver Johnny Herbert. 

Piastri finished third in Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, but radioed into his team to tell them that he believed he had the pace to attack race-leader Max Verstappen if second-placed team-mate Lando Norris waved him past. 

Norris did not receive any instruction to let Piastri by, with a common agreement usually in place where the driver let past will cede position back to his team-mate if he cannot pass the car ahead.

Norris and Piastri are subject to what are known as "papaya rules" at McLaren, with team orders between the two being a contentious topic at some 2024 races, including in Hungary where McLaren instructed Norris to let Piastri back through for the lead after a different pit strategy, something he eventually did. 

Webber was a victim of one of F1's most infamous team order sagas at Red Bull in 2013 with Sebastian Vettel, who ignored the "Multi-21" instruction in Malaysia to pass Webber for the win, and Herbert believes the Australian will be speaking with McLaren CEO Brown. 

"Of course, Mark Webber will have a word with Zak Brown about the team orders, and so he should," Herbert told FastSlots.

"But the other element is trying to keep the harmony in the team. I understand why Webber would push for that, but I also know that the team is very aware of the driver's situation as far as the championships go.

"Did they lose it last year in some ways? Yes, for the driver's championship. But they were on the back foot all the time and were always trying to claw back the big lead that Max built up early on.

"At some stage, you've got to give the support at the right time to the right driver to be able to optimise their ability to get the points to chase for the title.

"Is Lando's team going to be pushing for Lando to get the right calls? Yes.

"Is Oscar’s team going to be pushing to get the right calls for their driver? Yes, of course they are.”

Despite being the lead McLaren driver in the drivers' championship, Herbert does not believe he is being favoured over Piastri.

"I don't think Lando Norris is overprotected,” he added. “I think supported, yes. Protected, no.

"That's an important part of what didn't quite happen last year. I go back to what happened in Hungary last year, when Norris had to give up the race.

“Potentially, it could have pushed Norris onto another level by winning that race, that's the support that sometimes you need, and that's the support that Max has got.

"That's what they seem to be wanting to do this time around and as we saw at Suzuka, they didn’t swap the drivers around, which I think was the right thing."