Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have both insisted that protecting their teammates was central to McLaren’s use of team orders at the Italian Grand Prix and that they were focused on long-term success that would be fostered by doing the right thing, despite criticism after they were instructed to switch places at Monza.
The Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, however, also noted McLaren’s adherence to such strongly held principles of fairness for their drivers may yet cause them serious headaches later in the season if Norris and Piastri end up toe-to-toe for the title.
Max Verstappen won at Monza but McLaren’s use of team orders, having Piastri return second place to Norris after the British driver lost the position due to a slow pit stop caused by a faulty wheel gun, prompted no little controversy given the pair are in a two-horse race for the title, with Piastri now leading by 31 points.
The drivers and team principal Andrea Stella concurred that it had been the right thing to do as part of the agreed racing principles at McLaren but the drivers also emphasised that they felt it had also been part of a bigger picture looking to foster a positive environment within a McLaren team intent on going on to win further titles.
Both drivers were explicit in urging that they did not want any member of the squad to feel they had been responsible for having an impact on the result.
“We’ve said many, many times now that we don’t want the chance of this success just for this year,” said Piastri. “We’re both at McLaren for a very long time and protecting the people around us that give us this opportunity is a very important thing. It’s easy enough to put yourself second at times like that.”
“We want it for as long as possible and protecting the people includes the people doing the pit stops. It’s not a very nice feeling, I would imagine.”
His opinion was wholeheartedly backed by Norris.
“The team is priority No 1 and drivers second,” he said. “That’s how it works. It’s only our second year of fighting for wins but the team gives us these opportunities. Without the team, then we’re just fighting for 10th and none of us want that. The spirit of the team is priority and we are below that.”
Wolff managed what became a fractious and bitter intra-team battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2016 which he described at Monza this year as “two lions in the den” who were “at each other’s throats”, but was intrigued how the McLaren commitment to fair play between its drivers would play out.
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“There is no right and there is no wrong,” he said. “I’m curious to see how that ends up. You set a precedent that is very difficult to undo. What if the team makes another mistake and it’s not a pit stop, do you switch them around?
“We are going to get our response of whether that was right today towards the end of the season when it heats up.”
He also observed that how McLaren micro-manage the myriad potential variations for scenarios between the teammates will likely become only more complex.
“What is a team mistake? What if next time around the car doesn’t start up and you lose a position or whatever, the suspension breaks,” he said. “What do you do then in the next one? So you could have a cascade of events that can be very difficult to manage.”
