After Oscar Piastri said he is no “blank cheque”, Lando Norris stressed his desire is to win an F1 World Championship “in a deserving way”.

Norris has brought himself increasingly into the F1 2024 Drivers’ Championship conversation, reducing Max Verstappen’s lead to 52 points with a dominant display in Singapore, McLaren having usurped Red Bull at the top of the Constructors’ standings and arguably when it comes to having the fastest F1 2024 car.

Lando Norris wants to earn F1 title success on merit

With McLaren sensing a shot at the title double, the Woking squad is ready to back Norris, as is his team-mate Piastri, a two-time race winner in F1 2024.

However, for Piastri, that support does not come on an unconditional basis.

“The team wants to win both championships. If you have the opportunity to do so, you can’t let it pass you by,” Piastri told Auto Motor und Sport.

“If I’m only thinking about myself, I don’t like team orders against me. No driver likes that. For your own pride, you want to show that you are the fastest driver on the track.

“Nevertheless, I will help Lando in the final races if I am asked. He has the more realistic chance of winning the title.

“But that’s not a blank cheque. It has to make sense for me to let him by.

“We also want to win the Constructors’ Championship and sacrificing my race to help Lando won’t help us achieve that goal.

“We will decide on a case-by-case basis.

“Baku showed how we do things at McLaren. If Lando hadn’t stopped [Sergio] Perez after the first pit stop, I might not have won. He has a share in my victory.”

And Piastri’s view on the matter is one mirrored by Norris, who would not deem it a title earned if he was to reach that summit by drivers like team-mate Piastri moving over for him.

Asked by Sky F1 if it worries him that the title door may close if McLaren do not maximise every point, Norris replied: “I know and I don’t want to go five years down the line and go, ‘I only won because people let me pass and this happened and that’.

“Like, it’s not, I think, a deserving victory, and I want to win in a deserving way.

“I get people’s biases and people’s opinions, but I’m happy with what we’re doing and I also need to go out and do the job correctly, and I’ll be more proud that I’ve done it that way than if I haven’t.”

While this is Norris’ first experience of a title push, McLaren are also readjusting to this scene having not won a title since 2008, when Lewis Hamilton claimed his first Drivers’ title crown. Not since 1998 has McLaren won the Constructors’ title.

And asked if being in this position is how Norris had imagined it would be, he replied: “I think it’s hard to think right now actually what it’s like, because you’re so in the moment.

“I’m sure maybe next year, or in many years, once and when I review it and when I look back on it, it probably will feel quite different.

“But I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying the nerves, the pressure, I’m enjoying the battles against Max.

“And I’m also just enjoying where we are as a team, because we didn’t expect to be in this position as a team, where we can, I would say, go into most races now going, ‘Oh, we can win this weekend, we can win next weekend, we can win the weekend after’ and that’s a thought we never thought we would have for quite a long time still.

“So we’re enjoying that fact as well. We’re enjoying the race wins, the podiums we’re having and the fight we’re bringing to our competition.”

Six rounds remain of the F1 2024 campaign, McLaren’s lead over Red Bull 41 points.