David Coulthard questions McLaren for 'manipulating' Monza F1 result

Former F1 driver David Coulthard has questioned McLaren's need to intervene with its drivers at the Italian Grand Prix, insisting it felt like “manipulating the result”.

Oscar Piastri was instructed to second place back to Lando Norris after the latter dropped behind him following a slow pit stop.

The team order came amid their tight battle for the championship, which sees Piastri hold a 31-point margin over his team-mate. 

McLaren's decision has caused a divide, with a majority of RacingNews365 readers believing the Woking-based squad was wrong to give the order.

Speaking to Channel 4, Coulthard also voiced his disapproval with the instruction.

“Inside the racer and inside the little boy that grew up a fan of the sport, I want to see racing wheel-to-wheel,” he said. 

“And yes, sometimes engines will blow up. Yes, sometimes you’ll get involved in an incident.

“This just feels a little bit like manipulating the result, and that feels uncomfortable, I have to say.

“But it's within the rules, and it's McLaren's right. They're going to win the constructors' and the drivers' championship this year, but this just feels that it should be left for them to go about it.”

Coulthard, who has 13 grand prix wins to his name, stated it is impossible for anyone other than a racing driver to understand Piatstri's pain of having to relinquish track position to both his team-mate and title rival.

“As a driver, you want to win races or deserve a result on merit,” he said. “You don't want to be handed results. 

“That's what we race from a very young age for. And this is what I think sometimes, brilliant engineers, brilliant managers, the people that make all of this happen for the drivers, don't fully understand - as much as they're passionate and this is their lives. 

“They've not sat in that race car, they've not sweated, they've not had the pain. 

“They've not had the anguish. When your race engineer is effectively saying, 'Well, look, you have to do this to the benefit of your team-mate' - That's uncomfortable. That just hurts.”