Carlos Sainz Jnr has backed McLaren’s decision not to relax the restrictions it imposes on its drivers racing each other as they fight for the drivers’ championship.

McLaren has intervened in races this year to ensure what it regards as a fair fight between its drivers, who are leading the points standings.

At Monza the team instructed Oscar Piastri to allow Lando Norris to overtake him following a slow pit stop. The team has now imposed unspecified “repercussions” on Norris after holding him responsible for a collision between the two drivers in Singapore.

McLaren clinched the constructors’ championship in Singapore but the team will continue to impose its internal ‘papaya rules’ on how its drivers may race each other. Sainz, who was Norris’s team mate at McLaren from 2019 to 2020, said this is justified as its drivers are at risk of losing their title fight to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

“It depends on the domination of the team,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “I think the Mercedes years were a perfect example of them being so dominant that they could afford to fight each other a bit more.

“I think whenever the championship can go away to a different team, a different driver, you need to respect that and be a bit more careful. Even if the teams don’t say that, the drivers’ championship is something that a team wants.”

“It doesn’t matter who the other driver is,” Sainz added. “If a championship can go for the team and the driver, and you have two drivers fighting for it, and there’s one guy that can take it [away], it does matter if it’s Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen or Charles Leclerc, you want the championship for your two drivers, so you want to keep them relatively under control.”

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However Alpine’s Pierre Gasly said the fact McLaren have won the constructors’ championship means they should give their drivers a free rein.

“I think it’s fair, as long as the constructors’ [championship] is not sealed, that the team is taking all the precautions necessary,” he said. “But I think from this point on I think we’ll all be happy to see them race freely with each other.

“We’re talking about a world championship. You want it to be decided in the cockpit and on the racetrack without really any directions from anything external. So hopefully that’s what we’re going to see.

“But everybody’s got their view on it. I think from a drivers’ point of view, you always want to race free and that’s what I wish for both of them.”

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