McLaren, as a team, continues to exert their superiority over other constructors by some dominating performances and equally impressive results in the F1 championship season thus far. They lead the constructors’ championship with 617 points and are ahead by 337 points of the second-best team (Ferrari with 280 points). Leading the driver’s championship is Oscar Piastri with 324 points, while following him closely is his rival and teammate, Lando Norris, 31 points behind.
However, during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on Sunday, it was defending champion and Red Bull poster boy Max Verstappen who outclassed the Papaya duo to win the race with ease. Norris finished second while Piastri came third to wrap the podium.
The race also saw the decision-making of McLaren — who asked their drivers to swap places just a few laps before the end — being questioned for the rather controversial decision. McLaren ordered world championship leader Piastri to cede second place to Norris with four laps remaining after a slow pit stop had seen the Briton fall behind his team-mate.
This was done to prevent Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc from sweeping the podium towards the fag end as Piastri obliged the team orders. This resulted in Norris getting to 293 points, just 31 points away from Piastri’s total, keeping the championship race open for both their drivers.
Speaking on this whole situation and whether this decision will set a precedent in the future races, Piastri said: “If it’s within your control and there’s no other cars involved, it’s quite simple,” Piastri was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
“But obviously if there’s other cars involved, we’re not going to give away all of those points to other teams for a mistake. When there’s no cars in between, it’s much easier to rectify it. If there had been more cars in between, then no, we wouldn’t have swapped back because at that point, it does just become very unfortunate,” he said during the post-race press conference.
‘Have plans for different things’
Meanwhile, the second-placed Norris said: “Every situation is different, so I think it’s pretty stupid just to assume that kind of thing and just say that’s the precedent you set. We’re not idiots, and we have plans for different things. If there was four cars in between me and Oscar, of course he’s not going to let me back past, and I don’t think that’s correct that he let me back past.”
Story continues below this ad
“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,” said Norris.
“Today was not my fault. If I came flat out into my box and hit all my mechanics out of 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 it 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,” he added.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
