Monza, Sep 8 McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has defended the call that saw Oscar Piastri asked to move aside for Lando Norris during the Italian Grand Prix, insisting the decision was rooted in the team’s “values and principles” rather than any past incidents.
Norris and Piastri spent much of Sunday’s race running in second and third, before briefly forming a 1-2 when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen pitted earlier on a different strategy. McLaren responded by bringing in Piastri on Lap 45 and Norris on Lap 46, but a slow pit stop for the Briton meant he rejoined behind his teammate in third – a setback in his fight for the drivers’ championship.
To restore order, McLaren quickly instructed Piastri to yield position to Norris, referencing last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix when the roles were reversed. Norris duly reclaimed second and held it to the chequered flag, trimming Piastri’s title lead from 34 points to 31.
Explaining the call, Stella told F1 TV, “Let me start by saying that the decision we made today doesn’t have [anything] to do with what happened in the Netherlands – it’s completely independent of the DNF that the team caused for Lando. This is a completely separate situation and we take one race at a time.”
He continued, “Today, when we started the pit stop sequencing, we started the sequencing pitting Oscar first but with the clear intent that we would have not swapped the positions. Unfortunately, this compounded with the fact that we had a slow pit stop [for Norris]. Because we had the sequence with Oscar first and then the slow pit stop, we thought that the fair thing to do was to go back to the positions that we had before the pit stops. I’m sure Oscar will be very comfortable with this; he already was comfortable during the race.”
For Stella, the decision was less about strategy sheets and more about the team’s ethos. “We showed again the values and the principles we have at McLaren,” he stressed.
Asked about the radio call referencing Hungary 2023, Stella clarified that the situation should not be viewed through the lens of the past. “Of course, we had Hungary, but after Hungary we had so many conversations, so much alignment with each other as to how we go racing, so I don’t think we need to go so far back. I think we just stick and refer to the principles and the approach that we have in the way we go racing. I think it’s alright.”
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