Lando Norris bullishly dismissed criticism of McLaren for using team orders at the Italian Grand Prix, saying the team would continue to do what they felt was right “no matter what people say”. His teammate Oscar Piastri, who ceded his place to the British driver, also maintained he had no regrets in agreeing to do so.
The race was won by Max Verstappen for Red Bull, with the world champion enjoying enormous pace at Monza, while Norris and Piastri followed in second and third place. After Norris had held second almost the entire race, he dropped behind his teammate because of a slow pit stop caused by a wheel gun issue in the last laps and McLaren ordered the Australian to give the place back.
Piastri did so and Norris went on to take second and three points out of his teammate’s championship lead, reducing it to 31 points. Both drivers accepted the decision on track and afterwards. Norris, who was booed on the podium, was forthright in his belief that McLaren had made the right call.
“I don’t want to win this way, and the same with Oscar,” he said. “But we do what we think is correct as a team no matter what people say and what their opinions are and we will stick with that.
“We are not idiots and we have plans for different things. If there were four cars between me and Oscar, of course he is not going to let me back past and that is correct. But if there is a situation where we are racing and you can be fair, you would expect to be fair as a team.
“Today was not my fault. If I came flat out into my box and I hit all my mechanics I would not expect to get the position back. This was out of my control.”
Piastri could have put three more points on his title rival by refusing to move over but agreed with Norris that he felt he had done the right thing according to the culture and racing ethos engendered at McLaren.
When asked if he may have cause to regret the decision if he lost the title by three points, he was unequivocal.
“I wouldn’t regret it, no,” he said. “It was a fair decision. Lando was ahead the whole race. It wasn’t through any fault of his own. For me, that’s fine. Ultimately, whoever wins the championship wants to have won it as much as they can through their own performances and things that they can control and today that wasn’t one of those things.”
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“Lando qualified ahead, was ahead the whole race and lost that spot through no fault of his own.”
The Australian said the drivers and team would review and discuss what had happened. Piastri had pointedly noted when given the order to move over that: “We said that a slow pit stop was part of racing,” suggesting the parameters of this situation had not in fact been entirely hammered out in advance and the team principal, Andrea Stella, also confirmed they would address them again.
“We will review the case,” he said. “We will also review the situation whereby it was a slow pit stop in isolation. We already have our principles in relation to that. We will review our principles in relation to that and reinforce the direction if this is in agreement with our drivers.”
Norris also took the booing from the fans, who had flooded on to the track beneath the podium, on the chin. “I heard them, but I don’t know what I am meant to do,” he said. “The cheers were louder than the boos, and that is the most important thing.”
