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Norris stands as the nearest rival to Max Verstappen at the top of the standings, 62 points down on the Dutchman with eight races remaining.
The new position comes after Norris started from pole in the Italian Grand Prix but fell to third on the opening lap after being passed by Piastri at the second chicane.
Conversations within the team since have reached a new agreement, with the Australian accepting a supporting role – when necessary.
“What we don’t want to see any more is a situation like in Monza in which we enter a chicane P1/P2 and we exit P1/P3,” team boss Andrea Stella told the BBC.
“That is a detriment to the team.
“The team interests comes first and these are the situations that above all we need to fix because eventually, as a matter of fact, the way we entered the race in Monza left the door open this situation.
“After Monza, three objectives: we need to make sure that anything that happens on track is not to the detriment of the team.
“Second objective, how do we win both championships, both drivers committed to help?
“But what we don’t want to do is win in a reckless way.
“Those are the three topics and they define the way we go racing in Baku. This will be updated after Baku.”
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McLaren employed ‘Papaya Rules’ in Monza, a set of principals that dictate the rules of engagement between its two drivers. that left the pair free to race with Piastri taking full advantage.
Going forward however there will be a more concerted effort to support Norris’ interests ahead of Piastri’s – a point the Melburnian has agreed to.
“We [will] bias our support to Lando but we want to do it without too much compromise on our principles,” Stella admitted.
“Our principles are that the team interest always comes first. Sportsmanship for us is important in the overall way we go racing. And then we want to be fair to both drivers.
“The conversations have been very collaborative,” he added.
“Even when I said to Oscar: ‘Would you be available to give up a victory?’ He said: ‘It’s painful, but if it’s the right thing to do now, I will do it’.
“Every driver is hard-wired to go for a victory.
“So I am always very impressed by the level of team spirit and maturity and collaboration that we found in this period.”
Norris has been in two minds over the use of team orders.
While admitting he’d accept the help, he also confessed that he felt he needed to earn the results himself.
“Lando wants to win because he deserved the victory on track,” Stella said.
“It’s okay to be occasionally supported by your team-mate, but you don’t want to use, systematically, ways of adjusting the race just for the sake of the points when your team-mate is scoring in a way that he deserves.
“This is not the way McLaren want to win, or the way Lando wants to win.
“If I ask Lando, he would say: ‘I am comfortable if in Abu Dhabi [at the end of the season] I miss a few points that I could have got with some actions, but if those actions were not right at the time, then, you know what?
“We keep strong as a team, the team is stable and cohesive, we will give it a go next year’.”
McLaren sits eight points behind Red Bull Racing in the constructors’ championship and is tipped to take over at the head of the title race ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix next weekend.
