Yesterday at 10:10
Toto Wolff says he is "curious" to see how McLaren's team orders
decision in the Italian Grand Prix will pan out, as he warned a
precedent had been set. With Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri leading
one-two, but yet to stop in the closing stages at Monza, Piastri
was pitted first to protect against Charles Leclerc behind, but a
slow stop for Norris meant the Australian got ahead of his rival.
McLaren then instructed Piastri to cede second to Norris, despite
him saying he believed a slow pit-stop was part of racing, before
giving the place back. It meant Norris cut Piastri's lead to 31
points in the standings, but Mercedes chief Wolff, who guided Lewis
Hamilton and Nico Rosberg through their vicious title fights
between 2014-2016, believes McLaren has now set a precedent for
team orders which must be followed for the remainder of the season.
"That is a super interesting question," Wolff told media, including
RacingNews365 , when asked if he would have made the same call as
McLaren did. "There is no right and there is no wrong, and I'm
curious to see how it plans out, to set the precedent which is very
difficult to undo. "What if the team makes another mistake and
there is not a pit-stop to switch them around, but then equally,
because of a team mistake, making a driver trying to catch up lose
the points is not fair either. "So I think we are going to get our
response on whether it was right towards the end of the season,
when it heats up. "If I look at our situations [with Hamilton and
Rosberg], because I am not in the shoes of McLaren, back in the
day, with the kind of gap where the constructors' championship is
guaranteed, you just let them race, but within the rules: 'You race
fair and square and you don't touch.' "'If you touch, then we will
take control', that's what I would have done better in 2016 than
trying to over-manage with our racing intent."
