McLaren defend team orders after flirting with danger

Andrea Stella has come to the defence of McLaren after it left it late to enact team orders in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix sprint.

The team principal conceded that he would have liked to have switched Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris sooner than the Woking squad ultimately did, but the opportunity did not materialise.

Having led from pole, Oscar Piastri acted on the instruction to invert the team's positions in the closing stages at Interlagos, just before the virtual safety car was deployed for the stricken Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.

When racing got back underway on the final lap, the Australian held of Max Verstappen - who was demoted to fourth after the race for a VSC infringement - to allow his team-mate to ease home to victory.

"We were monitoring the gaps to [Charles] Leclerc before and Verstappen, to see if we could have executed an easy overtake between Lando and Oscar beforehand, but the gap never materialised," Stella explained on Sky Sports F1.

"We needed to watch for a safety car, or virtual safety car. It appeared due to the incident with the car stopping on track, so we immediately executed [team orders].

"It was well done by the team, but it would not be possible without both drivers working so cohesively.

"We are definitely very happy with the conversations that are happening right now and with the support that Oscar is giving to Lando.

"This is the best result we could ever for both championships."

Late-race switch was not McLaren's plan

The one-two finish handed McLaren maximum points as it bids to clinch a first constructors' championship since 1998.

With Ferrari finishing third and fifth, it allowed the papaya squad to extend its lead over the Scuderia from 29 points to 34.

In tandem, Norris was abled to cut Verstappen's drivers' title advantage to 44 points with four grand prix and one more sprint to run.

However, despite the result, it did not come smoothly for McLaren. Leaving the position switch as late as it did could have proven costly for the Briton's championship charge, which remains an outside bet.

In his words, Stella admitted it was not ideal leaving team orders so late given the added risk.

"Like I said before, ideally you would do it earlier," the 53-year-old stated.

"But the situation never materialised for this being done in a safe situation, because as soon as you swap, you would have the guy in third with the possibility to overtake a McLaren, and this wouldn't fit our principle that the team result comes first."

Given how strong both Piastri and Norris performed, both were deserving of the victory, which the British driver confirmed he was not proud to have inherited.

Reflected on the "two number one driver" situation at the Woking team, Stella concluded: "It creates some headaches, but we work very hard to have two number one drivers, fast drivers, but above all, we work hard every day to have two great team players, and that's what I would like to press."