ANDREA STELLA says his McLaren drivers must work together to see off challengers such as Max Verstappen before they can consider an inter-team title battle.

McLaren won the opening two races of the season — one each for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri — which sparked talk of a scrap between the team mates for the drivers’ championship.

But Verstappen, bidding for a fifth successive title, upset the odds by winning the Japanese Grand Prix to cut Norris’s title lead to just a single point.