McLaren make clear statement on controversial Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri swap

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."