What looked like a straightforward double podium for McLaren in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix turned into the talking point of the weekend when team orders were deployed to swap Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
The call – made after Norris lost time in a sluggish pitstop – left Mercedes boss Toto Wolff warning that team papaya’s decision at Monza may have set a precedent that could be “very difficult to undo”.
Norris, however, was quick to defend McLaren’s approach, dismissing the notion that his team’s move is now rigid policy.
In the closing stages of the race, McLaren pitted Piastri first to shield him from Charles Leclerc’s undercut. When Norris’ subsequent stop went awry, the Briton suddenly found himself behind his team-mate.
But rather than letting the pair race, McLaren instructed Piastri to hand the place back – citing last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix as precedent, when Norris had gained unfairly at Piastri’s expense.
A Precedent with Pitfalls?
Wolff believes the Monza decision will echo long beyond Sunday’s race.
“There is no right and there is no wrong, and I'm curious to see how that pans out,” Wolff said. “You set a precedent that is very difficult to undo.
“What if the team does another mistake and it's not a pitstop... do you switch them around? But then equally, because of a team mistake, making a driver that is trying to catch up lose the points is not fair either.
“So, I think we are going to get our response of whether that was right today towards the end of the season when it heats up.”
His words highlight the tightrope McLaren now walks: balancing fairness between two ambitious young drivers while avoiding future accusations of favoritism.
Norris: “We’re not idiots”
Norris, though, brushed off suggestions of any controversy. When asked if he would follow similar instructions later in the season, his answer was emphatic.
“Yes, because that’s what we’ve agreed as a team,” he said.
The Briton also dismissed claims that Monza had set an irreversible standard, insisting McLaren would handle each case on its merits.
“Every situation is different. So I think it’s pretty stupid just to assume that kind of thing and just say that’s the precedent you set,” he contended.
“We’re not idiots. And we have plans for different things. If there was four cars in between me and Oscar, of course, he’s not going to let me back past. And I don’t think that’s correct that he let me back past.
“But in a situation where we weren’t racing, in a situation where we can just be fair, then you’d expect to be fair as a team.”
“I don’t want to win this way”
Norris stressed that neither he nor Piastri took any pleasure in orchestrated position swaps, and that Sunday’s call was about avoiding injustice, not manipulating results.
“They don’t want to be the reason. They don’t want to be the reason to upset one driver or another through no fault of their own,” he said.
“Today was not my fault. So if I came flat out into my box and I hit all my mechanics out the way, I also don’t expect to get the position back. But today was out of my control.
“And in the end, I don’t want this. Like, I don’t want to win this way through getting given positions or anything like that. And the same thing with Oscar. You know, we don’t want to lose or win like that.
“But we do what we think is correct as a team, no matter what you say or what your opinions are. And we stick to doing it our way.”
For McLaren, Monza ended with valuable points secured and harmony seemingly intact. Yet Wolff’s cautionary words underline the potential minefield awaiting should a similar call come under championship-deciding circumstances.
In the cutthroat world of Formula 1, one slow pitstop might just have opened one of the season’s biggest debates.
Read also:
The fair thing to do’: Stella defends McLaren’s team orders
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