Andrea Stella’s heart must have skipped a beat when he saw Oscar Piastri lock up just millimetres away from Lando Norris into turn one in the dying laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The two McLaren drivers have been neck and neck in the drivers’ championship throughout the entirety of the season.

The team aren’t favouring either driver, something that F1 legend and former McLaren driver Emerson Fittipaldi noted that he ‘especially likes’ about the current title fight.

At the moment, it’s impossible to call who will come out on top between Piastri and Norris, with the former enjoying a very slender nine-point lead at the top of the drivers’ standings.

Zak Brown shared his verdict on how he wants the title to be decided, telling both of his drivers, ‘May the best man win.’

Andrea Stella isn’t telling the McLaren drivers ‘anything’ when it comes to racing each other

Former McLaren employee Jo Ramirez was a guest on the ESPN MX Racing podcast, where he revealed what Stella said to him following Norris’ victory at the Hungaroring, highlighting the team’s calmness in those hairy moments.

“I had the luck of being in Budapest for the last race, which was also a one-two,” Ramirez started. “They almost touched at the end, and that would have been worse than when they touched in Canada, which was Lando’s fault, leading to him losing the race and his points.

“If they hit in Hungary and both had retired, imagine the disaster. But the team remained completely cool. I spoke with Zak and Andrea after the race, and Andrea said, ‘At no moment did we tell them anything. There was nothing, the only thing we asked was that they don’t touch each other.’

“It’s very easy to say don’t touch when there are two drivers who both want to win and the cars are equal.

“But, they had the firmness, even if the heart was beating a lot, to say nothing and let them race until the last moment.”

Zak Brown has asked both Norris and Piastri to plan the celebrations of the drivers’ championship together. The McLaren CEO came up with the idea in a bid to keep the team harmony from turning toxic once the winner is revealed.

The lack of team orders reminds Jo Ramirez of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s rivalry at McLaren

Ramirez spent 17 years of his career in Formula 1 as a co-ordinator for the McLaren team, then run by Ron Dennis.

The period was one of McLaren’s most successful eras, with Ramirez working alongside iconic names in the sport such as Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Mika Hakkinen.

The Mexican noted one of the similarities of culture that is still present within the team to the one he knew during his tenure, saying, “Given the situation, I am sure that the championship will be decided in Abu Dhabi and that there will be no team orders.

Photo by Jayce Illman/Getty Images
“That is something that in McLaren’s history has never been done, and now that it is a completely new management, new direction, everything new, the message and culture of McLaren remains the same: let them race, it is a competition, and we cannot disappoint the audience that comes to pay.

“In my time, it was the same. In ’88, which was our most glorious year, we won 15 of 16 races. Ayrton won eight and Alain won seven. If Alain’s engine hadn’t broken in Monza, Alain would have won, and we would have done eight and eight.”

Stella’s handling of Norris and Piastri has led to some people claiming that the team principal is ‘brainwashing’ his drivers into driving for the team instead of focusing on their own championship.

With McLaren enjoying a commanding lead at the top of the constructors’ championship as well, it looks like whatever Stella is doing is the most lucrative option in that respect.