Piastri, who leads the drivers’ championship by nine points heading into this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, said internal discussions took place after Norris’s one-stop gamble in Budapest swung the title momentum.
But he maintains that McLaren is right to allow both drivers the freedom to diverge tactically.
“Yeah, we’ve spoken about it since then,” Piastri said.
“I think ultimately there are race situations where being the second car from the team on track, or just – you don’t even have to be a second car from your team, it’s just – being the last car in the train or the last car in the group, you’ve got a lot less to lose.
“So that kind of aspect is always going to be there. And I think it would be unfair to neutralise that just because of wanting to be on the same strategy.”
McLaren had considered whether more could have been done for Piastri during the Budapest race but, according to the Australian, those conversations reinforced the team’s stance rather than changing it.
“There were discussions about whether there was anything we could have done differently for myself, which were very productive discussions,” he said. “So, I think we’re still going to be free to pick alternating strategies, if that’s what we want.
“But yes, there were definitely some discussions about how we can tackle that, because it’s obviously a difficult thing to try and cover, different strategies, especially when you’re in the position we are in the championship.”
Norris, who capitalised on the one-stop approach to beat Piastri by just 0.698s in Hungary, echoed the sentiment in the build-up to Zandvoort.
The Briton stressed that Budapest was “a bit of an outlier” and that both drivers want to retain flexibility.
“I think at the minute things have not really changed,” Norris said. “I think Budapest was a bit of an outlier.
“My decision to go on to the one stop was more [about getting back into podium contention than chasing the win].
“You’d have to be pretty daft if I was to box, after everyone else ahead of me had boxed, just to follow suit and do nothing different.
“You don’t need to even be smart to do something different.
“It was pretty amazing that it turned out that way and was a perfect result. I didn’t make that decision at the time thinking: ‘OK, this is my race and I can try and win it now.’”
Norris admitted the race may not have been “a perfect harmonic” for the team, but pointed out that both he and Piastri are keen to avoid restrictive rules as the title battle intensifies.
“I think we both want, as drivers, things not to be overly strict and we don’t want to just not be able to race, because we’re also here as individuals to race and improve [and find out] who can do a better job,” he said.
McLaren is chasing its first drivers’ crown since 2008, with Piastri holding a 97-point buffer over reigning world champion Max Verstappen in third.
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