Yesterday at 08:20
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has delivered a clear
statement on why a controversial call was made late in the Italian
Grand Prix to swap drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri which was
to the detriment of the Australian. Running second and third behind
Red Bull's Max Verstappen, as the lead car, Norris gave up priority
at the pit stop phase to Piastri after both had run deep into the
race on Pirelli's hard tyres before switching to softs. Piastri's
stop of 1.91s was the fastest for any team this year. Following a
lap later, an issue with the front left meant Norris was turned
around in just under six seconds, costing him the lead. Slow pit
stops are part of racing, yet Piastri was informed to cede position
to Norris, and beyond that, race to the chequered flag. It was a
call Piastri questioned over the radio initially by stating, "We
said that a slow pit stop was part of racing. I don't really get
what's changed here", before adding that he would comply. Speaking
to the media and asked by RacingNews365 whether the decision taken
was the right one, even if Piastri should lose the title by six
points or less to Norris, the swing between finishing second and
third at Monza, Stella delivered a stoic response. "The pit stop
situation is not only a matter of fairness, it's a matter of
consistency with our principles," he said. "And however the
championship goes, what's important is that it runs within the
principles and the racing values that we have, and that we have
created together with our drivers. "The situation whereby we
stopped the drivers is not only related to the pit stop, it's also
related to the fact that we wanted to sequence the pit stop of the
two cars by stopping Oscar first and then Lando. "And we had the
clear intent that these should not have led to a swap of position.
It was just done because we were covering [Charles] Leclerc. "At
the same time, we were waiting until the last possible moment to
see that if there would be a red flag or safety car, so we pursued
the team interest, and to capitalise as much as possible of this
interest, we needed to go first with Oscar, then with Lando. "But
the clear intent was that this was not going to deliver a swap of
positions, so the fact we went first with Oscar, compounded by the
slow pit stop 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 pit stop, and then let the guys race.
"This is what we did, and this is what we think is in compliance
with our principles." Stella highlights 'limited result' Aside from
Norris ceding pit stop preference to Piastri, Stella claimed that a
reason for bringing in Piastri was to cover off Leclerc, although
he was almost 29 seconds adrift by the time of the stop. The
pit-stop time loss at Monza was 25 seconds, and although Leclerc
was closing at half a second per lap on Piastri at the time,
McLaren still had plenty in hand. Further explaining the rationale
and the target McLaren had in mind, Stella said: "Obviously,
stopping to cover Leclerc [when he stopped several laps earlier]
would have been the simple solution to how the race would have
unfolded, but it would have limited the result. "We wanted to find
a way today to pursue a bigger result, like in the case of a red
flag that would have been quite strong with the two McLarens
leading, and even in terms of a safety car, up until a certain
point, it would have been strong. "Also, we wanted to stop late
enough to go on softs, because had there then been a late safety
car, we would have been on soft with Verstappen on hard. "So there
were incentives, from a racing point of view and from an overall
result point of view, at the end of the race to stay out. "We
stayed out up until the point where we needed to sequence the pit
stop differently compared to the order in which our two drivers
were."
