Norris 'must earn' prized McLaren status as 'bias' claims rubbished

Lando Norris is determined to "earn" number one driver status at McLaren as he also rejected talk of 'bias' after the Hungarian Grand Prix team orders saga.

At the Hungaroring, pole-sitter Norris was running second behind team-mate Oscar Piastri ahead of the final round of pit-stops, but McLaren pitted Norris first to cover off Lewis Hamilton behind.

This allowed Norris to undercut Piastri and take the lead, with the team then imploring Norris to cede position back to Piastri, despite Norris seemingly being the best chance of McLaren challenging for the drivers' crown. 

Norris eventually followed the team orders, finishing behind Piastri, and taking eight points out of championship-leader Max Verstappen instead of the 15 that was possible if he had won.

Post-race, McLaren boss Andrea Stella indicated that any driver who did not follow a team order could be axed by the team - and made clear his stance over so-called 'number one and number two drivers'.

Norris leads Piastri by 40 points in the drivers' heading into the Belgian Grand Prix, but the Briton is firm that he won't be handed lead driver status.

"No, I still need to earn it," Norris replied to media including RacingNews365 when asked if he was going to speak with Stella and Zak Brown about number one driver status. 

"I still need to go out there and drive quicker than everyone, I don't think it changes anything, and I don't know why all of a sudden you'd have a bias over one [driver].

"We've never had a bias in the team, even though it might have looked like it from the outside. 

"I have had a chance [at the title] all season, and we're only half-way through. 

"There is a hell of a long way to go, so maybe a little bit further down the line [there will be number one driver talks], but it is to be decided."

Bias claims

Norris also doubled down on the idea that McLaren favoured him by pitting him before Piastri, with the lead car usually being given the preferential strategy. 

The one-time grand prix winner was firm in his belief that Piastri was anything but the rightful winner and that is was just circumstance that put him into the lead.

"It has nothing to do with last week, I shouldn't have led that race," he said.

"That is the end of it,  I shouldn't have been in the lead, Oscar got me off the line and he controlled it well, and that was it. 

"People would never have had the perception of the team biasing towards Lando, if Oscar was leading the whole race, there is zero reason why they should ask him to suddenly let me past if you are thinking about it from a championship point of view.

"I don't know when the point is of like if I am 10 or 15 points behind, when do you go: 'Can you help out a bit more, can you do this or that?' 

"That is not my decision, but Oscar led the whole race, controlled it well and just from the strategy side, they boxed me first to be safe. 

"That's given the perception of something completely different but it shouldn't do. We know it doesn't, Oscar deserved to win, he did and it is as simple as that."