Montoya: McLaren falling in love with Piastri but Norris is their little project

Much has been said about the driver management at McLaren as Piastri and Norris slug it out, each targeting a maiden F1 Drivers' Crown.

But there has always been this consensus that McLaren, Zak Brown in particular, have a soft spot for Norris and are favoring him in his Title fight with his teammate, and the team orders fiasco during the 2025 Italian Grand Prix, when the Australian was asked to hand over second place to the Briton, added fuel to the fire.

Norris has been considered the future of McLaren ever since he was groomed from the junior categories, but then Piastri came in and crashed that party as he showed he was on par with, if not even better than, his teammate, which left Brown and Co. with a dilemma as to who they will back.

In the aftermath of Monza and as we head into this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Montoya was asked whether McLaren favored Norris.

"Let's pretend I agree that McLaren favors Norris," he said. "I think they're falling in love right now with Oscar's maturity, how well executed he is, but they've grown Lando over the years, and Lando is their little project.

"We have heard before from Zak [Brown] that we have had Lewis's [Hamilton] time, we have had Michael's [Schumacher] time, and now it's going to be Lando's time.

"You never heard about it being Oscar's time," the Columbian pointed out.

In F1, the first driver you have to beat is your teammate, and should you want to become a Champion, you need to exercise the level of ruthlessness the likes of Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and Michael Schumacher have.

And while Montoya believed Piastri could've challenged McLaren's team orders in Monza, there would have been consequences for that.

"It wasn't much," he said of the impact of the switch on the Title fight. "But if Piastri shunts in the next race and Lando wins, those three points might become very significant at the end of the year.

"The other question is, would Max have given the position back? Would Lewis, would Michael have, would Fernando have given the position back? You know the answer. No.

"They would have told the team exactly what Oscar basically said: 'Bullshit, we agreed that pit stops were part of racing. You guys messed up. It's on you.'

"He could have argued that, and the team would have had to accept it," the winner of seven Grands Prix claimed. "The problem with that is that then you create enemies within the team that you don't need, especially with Oscar trying to win a championship.

"Taking the three-point hit for Oscar, especially with his personality and the position he's in at McLaren, was the smarter decision," he concluded.

(Quotes from Jackpot City Casino)