McLaren and Norris defend contentious call

McLaren and Lando Norris have defended the team orders used to give second place back to the Brit at Monza.

Papaya Rules is back in the spotlight after the team asked Oscar Piastri to move aside and reinstate Norris second place.

This occurred despite Norris deciding to sacrifice pit priority to Piastri, and he paid the price when he lost 4s due to a slow tyre change in the lane.

McLaren’s decision to step in and give the place back to Norris has come under scrutiny with the likes of Max Verstappen laughing and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who has more experience than most about managing title tussles, stating it sets a “very difficult precedent.”

It arrived after McLaren elected to extend the first stint to the final 10 laps to run the Softs instead of the Hards and it did not work as Verstappen’s advantage grew from five to 19s.

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella explained the team’s “clear intent” was not to have led to a “position swap.”

“We were waiting until the last possible moment to see if there had been a red flag or a safety car,” confirmed Stella.

“So we pursued the team interest and to capitalise as much as possible on this interest, we needed to go first (at the pitstops) with Oscar, then with Lando.

“But the clear intent was this is not going to deliver a swap of positions.

“So the fact that we went first with Oscar, compounded by the slow pitstop of Lando, then led to a swap of positions, and we thought it was absolutely the right thing to go back to the situation pre-existing the pitstop and then let the guys race.

“This is what we did and this is what we think is in compliance with our principles.

for us it was relatively simple to say the intent was that we are not going to swap positions and that’s why the slow pitstop compounds with this intent.”

Norris beleived it was the “fair” decision as the position loss was “out of my control.”

“Every situation is different. We’re not idiots and we have plans for different things,” Norris said. 

“If there were four cars in between me and Oscar, of course he’s not going to let me back past, and I don’t think it’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. 

“They don’t want to be the reason to upset one driver or another through no fault of their own, you know.

“Today was not my fault. 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. 

“In the end, I don’t want to win this way through getting given positions or anything like that and the same thing with Oscar.

“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.”

Image: McLaren

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