Jolyon Palmer unimpressed with one thing McLaren keep saying publicly about Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella will be well aware of how critical the next few races are this season.

Oscar Piastri leads the drivers’ championship from Lando Norris, and while the constructors’ title might already be wrapped up, a historic double is far from certain yet.

Max Verstappen can’t be ruled out of contention yet, even if the four-time world champion doesn’t believe he stands a chance of adding a fifth title to his collection this year.

Helmut Marko has confirmed Red Bull are bringing updates to the Austrian Grand Prix, with further iterations arriving at Silverstone.

Ferrari are rushing updates to Austria too, meaning McLaren’s superiority is now under threat.

Andrea Stella and Zak Brown have been clear about the battle going on between their two drivers.

Brown has predicted that his drivers would collide at some point, and that’s exactly what happened at the Canadian Grand Prix.

READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Jolyon Palmer criticises McLaren message over Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri battle

During the closing stages of the race in Montreal, Norris had caught up to Piastri with his fantastic race pace.

However, he completely misjudged a move heading towards the first corner, drove into the back of Piastri and ended up in the barriers.

Jolyon Palmer was speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast about the clash and wasn’t particularly impressed with McLaren’s recent comments about their intra-team battle.

He explained: “The other interesting thing actually on that is, I feel like McLaren have opened themselves up to this by kind of admitting for weeks before that at some point they will make contact, at some point, it’s inevitable in this.

“They’re kind of diminishing that fear that you don’t crash with your teammate.

“They’re kind of saying it will happen, which almost invites it to happen a little bit more than if you’ve got a team boss that’s absolutely drilling it in.

“Maybe it would happen regardless, but I think that almost lets Lando a little bit more off the hook.”

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

Jolyon Palmer backs Oscar Piastri as the ‘best racer’ in Formula 1

Piastri wasn’t at fault for the incident with Norris and was very lucky to get away with no discernible damage that would have cost him a fourth-place finish.

The margin between Piastri and Norris is minuscule, with mistakes in qualifying being the primary reason why the British driver is beginning to lag behind his teammate.

Norris outqualified Piastri 20-4 last season, excluding Sprint qualifying, but already Piastri has beaten his teammate on six occasions on Saturdays this year.

Palmer believes Piastri is the ‘best racer’ in Formula 1 right now, a remarkable compliment considering the calibre of drivers on the grid.

McLaren can’t afford for Piastri and Norris to clash again with Verstappen and George Russell both looking very competitive this year.

Ralf Schumacher believes McLaren have internally decided to back Piastri, although the team are unlikely to ever admit that publicly if it’s true.

It’s now up to Norris to prove why he’s McLaren’s best bet to win the drivers’ championship, but he’s starting to run out of time to do so.