Is it time for McLaren to prioritise Piastri over Norris for the title?

Following the pair’s costly collision in Canada, F1 voices, including Martin Brundle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve and now Riccardo Patrese, have weighed in, warning that Zak Brown’s team risk handing the title back to Max Verstappen if they do not act decisively.

McLaren’s Montreal weekend unravelled after Norris collided with Piastri during a tense intra-team battle. The incident left Norris with a DNF and Piastri salvaging fourth. The net result is that Piastri now leads the F1 standings by 22 points over Norris. Verstappen, 21 points further back, remains in striking range despite a Red Bull RB21 that has lacked McLaren’s outright pace in recent rounds.

Patrese, a veteran of 256 Grand Prix starts, urged caution: “It’s a big problem. It’s crazy. If they let McLaren be free to race, then it’ll happen again, what happened in Canada. Norris makes a big mistake and crashes. It’s very dangerous because there is always Verstappen in there.”

Patrese stressed the ever-present risk posed by Red Bull’s reigning World Champion: “If for any reason the Red Bull finds a little bit of improvement, Verstappen is there and can really give them a lot of trouble.”

The Italian continued, “We still have 14 races. Let’s say Red Bull find an upgrade that works—Verstappen is very dangerous then.”

Patrese believes the Australian’s calm and consistent approach gives him the edge: “If you look, really, Piastri looks more consistent, more cool, makes less mistakes than Norris. Norris can be fantastic in one race, like Monte Carlo, but sometimes he feels the pressure more than Piastri.”

The Italian suggested that McLaren’s dip in Montreal may not signal a reversal of form. “The McLaren cars didn’t look very special. Very competitive but not dominant. Maybe they didn’t like the track, or maybe somebody else had an improvement like Mercedes.”

Still, he warned that in modern F1, even the smallest change can tip the balance: “Nobody sleeps. All the teams work very hard. It’s enough that you find something very small—and then you can really have a different, more competitive car.”

Patrese made clear who he would back if he were in McLaren management: “I would put Piastri first. I think he’s a bit stronger in the head than Norris and also he has more points at the moment.”

Patrese recalled a similar situation in 1983, when Brabham shifted its focus to Nelson Piquet after the Italian crashed at Imola: “They said okay, Riccardo crashing up the Aqua Minerali, now we need to go with one driver to fight. They decided to give this opportunity to Nelson.

“I had to do the work as a tester of new parts. They still sacrificed me. Anyway, as a professional driver I accepted it because I was in the team to work for the team.”

That decision proved the right one. “Nelson won the championship, and I won the last Grand Prix in South Africa. It was a big party at the end.”

With Verstappen looming and half a season to go, McLaren may soon have to make a similar call. And Patrese knows what he would do if he wanted the best for the team.

Heading to Round 11 in Austria this weekend, Piastri leads Norris by 22 points and Verstappen by 43. While McLaren are making a formality of clinching this year's F1 constructors' title.