David Croft tells McLaren what ‘any other team’ would do to ensure Max Verstappen doesn’t win the title

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McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was in control of the Formula 1 title race after the Dutch Grand Prix. He won the race comfortably ahead of Max Verstappen, with Lando Norris retiring due to a mechanical failure.

Piastri opened up a 34-point lead, and many were questioning if the title race was over. But he’s only scored 37 points in five events since, including a Sprint weekend in Austin.

Norris has taken 20 points out of him and, more alarmingly still, Verstappen has sliced the gap down to 40 with a run of form reminiscent of his Red Bull pomp. Barely a two-horse race at the end of August, the F1 title battle now features three drivers who will privately expect to be champion.

McLaren have already sealed a second consecutive constructors’ championship. But missing out on the drivers’ title from here would have to go down as an enormous failure, particularly given that the team haven’t won it for 17 years.

David Croft calls on McLaren to prioritise one driver – Pat Symonds agrees

Sky Sports commentator David Croft spoke to Cadillac’s executive engineering consultant Pat Symonds in the US Grand Prix paddock and asked him whether McLaren need to ‘prioritise one driver over the other’.

Symonds says it’s still a little too early to make that call, but thinks it will be necessary if Verstappen makes sizeable gains again at the Mexico City GP this weekend.

Croft disagrees, though. He thinks ‘any other team’ on the grid would make the ‘ruthless’ decision to back their lead driver, giving themselves the best possible chance of beating Verstappen.

Martin Brundle says McLaren have an ‘ace card’ with two drivers in the top three, and Croft wants them to make full use of it.

He said on the F1 Show: “Do McLaren need to make a decision to prioritise one driver over the other, to try and give them the best shot of winning the drivers’ title? I know that’s really, really tricky.

“I spoke to Pat Symonds at Cadillac about this, and he said, ‘Well look I probably wouldn’t do it ahead in Mexico like they’ve just had here, you probably have to make a very harsh choice to preserve your chances.’

“If it was any other team, I think they would be ruthless and say, ‘Guys, I know you want to win, and I know we’ve given you this fair chance, but we need the silverware, and this is our best way of doing it.’

“It’s a two-man team up against a one-man team, right?”

Have McLaren already started backing Oscar Piastri over Lando Norris?

Driver hierarchies can be difficult to implement. McLaren came under pressure last year to maximise Norris’ points at the expense of Piastri.

They eventually did so – when many felt it was too late. Piastri had to give up a Sprint win in Brazil (Norris later returned this favour), and also moved over for his teammate on the Sunday in Sao Paulo.

• READ MORE: Jenson Button tells F1 fans they ‘cannot forget’ one thing about Oscar Piastri in the title race

Even if Piastri were hypothetically made the number one driver, he may only benefit when directly behind Norris on track, unless the team started taking more extreme measures – the kind that could alienate a driver for good.

Piastri already has the superior run plan in qualifying, effectively a punishment for Norris making contact with the sister car in Singapore.

Red Bull worked out Norris’ ‘repercussions’ before they became public knowledge, telling Ted Kravitz that they put Piastri in the same position as Verstappen on a Saturday. In a sense, a driver pecking order is already in place.