Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff believes the McLaren team is facing a critical decision point, whereby it will need to make a call and prioritize Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri to support the former’s title chances.
McLaren's Italian Grand Prix weekend started with promise but quickly turned into a mixed bag of emotions on race day.
Norris, who qualified on pole, was overtaken by his Piastri on the opening lap, while both drivers were beaten to the checkered flag by Ferrari and Charles Leclerc’s bold one-stop strategy that delivered to the Italian outfit a resounding home win.
Meanwhile, Red Bull’s continued struggles resulted in Max Verstappen concluding his day a lowly sixth in the running order, a disappointing result that McLaren was unable to fully exploit.
With the title race heating up, the pressure is mounting on team papaya to maximize every opportunity, which inevitably signifies the need to bring team orders into play, a state of affairs very familiar to Wolff.
“I think as a racing team that is battling at the front suddenly, you are between a rock and a hard place because on one side they are racers like we are racers,” the Austrian explained at Monza.
“We want to make sure that the best man wins but on the other side when it starts to become dysfunctional and impacting your team performance then how do you react to that?”
Wolff understands the complexity of managing two talented drivers, having dealt with similar situations at Mercedes.
He noted that the decisions McLaren makes now could be crucial for their championship aspirations.
“The team is always on the losing end because if you freeze positions and have team orders then you have maybe not what our racing soul wants to do but the rational side needs to prevail.
“At the end you don’t want to lose out on a championship by three or five points that you could have easily made. So walking that tightrope is so difficult and there is no universal truth of how to handle it.”
McLaren’s situation has put team principal Andrea Stella in a difficult position. The Italian, who has a wealth of experience from his time at Ferrari, is known for his racing instincts.
After the race, he mentioned his intention to review Piastri’s first lap overtake on Norris to ensure it complied with McLaren’s ‘Papaya Rules’ code of conduct.
Wolff reckons that Stella will inevitably be facing internal conflict.
“There is nobody that understands sport more than Andrea,” added Wolff. “He has seen it all of that pan out in front of his eyes multiple times at Ferrari.
“He has that racers’ soul that doesn’t want to do it and wants to let them race but I think they are going to come to some conclusion after this race, how are we handling this?
“This is when we started to introduce the rules of engagement and then we changed the wording to racing intent because ‘rules’ was too harsh as a word for the drivers.”
Wolff’s insights shed light on the delicate balance teams must maintain between allowing their drivers to race freely and making strategic decisions that benefit the team's overall success.
For McLaren, the choice between sticking to their racing instincts or implementing more structured team orders could very well determine their fate in this year's title fight.
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