Former Formula 1 driver and F1TV commentator Jolyon Palmer believes McLaren’s controversial use of team orders at the Italian Grand Prix could have lasting repercussions for Oscar Piastri in his battle with teammate Lando Norris.
At Monza, McLaren’s dominant run of form in 2025 finally faltered as Max Verstappen cruised to a commanding win. But behind him, team papaya’s intra-team battle took center stage.
A slow pit stop for Norris meant he lost track position to Piastri, who had stopped earlier to fend off Charles Leclerc. However, the team swiftly intervened, instructing Piastri to yield so Norris could reclaim his runner-up spot behind Verstappen.
McLaren have maintained that the decision was driven by fairness in the championship fight and that Norris’s lost time was beyond his control. But Palmer is not convinced the matter will be easily forgotten.
“It’ll weigh heavily on him [Piastri], won’t it? The team will now start to think, ‘did we definitely handle that right in Monza?’” Palmer said on the F1 Nation podcast.
Pressure Points in the Title Battle
With just eight races left in the season, Piastri leads Norris by 31 points at the top of the standings. The teammates have mostly avoided major clashes this year, though Norris crashed into the back of Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix – a mistake he immediately apologized for.
Palmer suggested the Monza controversy could mark a turning point in McLaren’s internal dynamics.
“You have to bang the table for everything that you can get,” he explained.
“I don’t know if this is going to be the one where it really comes to fruition, but at some point this year, it just has to because of the history of the F1 title battles. Surely something has to give.”
Questions of Equality
Palmer drew on his own experiences to highlight the kind of doubts that may now linger within McLaren’s garage.
“When I was driving and I was having my worst ever weekend in Baku, I was thinking ‘how is the equality in the team?’” he explained.
“Because you’re driving the same car. You want an equal opportunity, but you’re thinking, ‘Am I getting the love of the team?’ Am I getting the new parts, the best strategy, the best pit stops?’
"Why are Lando’s pit stops routinely fractionally slower than Oscar’s or very much slower in Monza? And you start to think, ‘why are these things not quite falling in my favour?’”
According to the former Renault F1 driver, both Norris and Piastri will now be evaluating how McLaren handle them in the closing stages of the season.
“Both of them will be thinking that. Will we see one of them be a little bit more killer in Baku? I don’t know,” he said.
“I think the way that McLaren is managing this is quite contrived, to be fair, but they have got two compliant drivers still, and I don’t know if it’s going to change yet.”
As the championship tightens, the fallout from Monza may prove to be more than a one-off drama – it could define how McLaren’s season ends.
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