McLaren boss Andrea Stella has claimed that the team’s call to swap drivers in Formula 1‘s Italian Grand Prix was made to remain in “compliance with our principles”.
McLaren was cruising to a routine double podium as the race drew to a conclusion at Monza, with Lando Norris heading team-mate Oscar Piastri in second and third.
However, McLaren complicated matters when the decision to pit Piastri one lap earlier than Norris preceded the Briton enduring a slow stop that dropped him behind.
Piastri, though, obliged with McLaren’s instruction to return the position to his team-mate on track, despite the reversal seeing his championship lead cut to 31 points.
As McLaren endeavours to remain equitable in the title battle, Stella stressed that the choice on the pit wall to order Piastri to cede the place was the right thing to do.
“I think that the pitstop situation is not only a matter of fairness, it’s a matter of consistency with our principles,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“And wherever the championship goes, what’s important is that the championship runs within the principles and the racing values that we have at McLaren and that we have created together with our drivers.
“The situation whereby we swap the drivers is not only related to the pitstop, and it is useful that I clarify this, it’s also related to the fact that we wanted to sequence the pitstop of the two cars by stopping Oscar first and then Lando.
“We had the clear intent that this should have not led to a swap of position. It was just done because we were covering Leclerc, and at the same time we were waiting until the last possible moment to see if there had been a red flag or a safety car.
“So we pursued the team interest, and to capitalise as much as possible on this interest, we needed to go first with Oscar, then with Lando, but the clear intent was this is not going to deliver a swap of positions.
“So the fact that we went first with Oscar, compounded by the slow pitstop 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 pitstop and then let the guys race.
“This is what we did, and this is what we think is in compliance with our principles.”
With Piastri having voiced some opposition, Stella has signalled that he will have a discussion with both drivers about how to proceed should a similar situation arise.
“We will review the case,” the Italian elaborated.
“We will also review the situation whereby it was a slow pitstop in isolation. We already have our principles in relation to that.
“We will review our principles in relation to that and reinforce the direction if this is in agreement with our drivers.”
Why Monza swap differed to 2024 Hungarian GP switch
The situation drew an immediate parallel to last season’s Hungarian Grand Prix, when Norris got ahead through an undercut but relinquished the win to Piastri late on.
Stella has declared that the two circumstances were not identical, however, citing that Norris would have retained track position at Monza without the bodged pitstop.
“The difference from Hungary was the sequence compounded by the slow stop,” he continued.
“You could argue that from the outside that’s a very different set of circumstances.
“It would be slightly diferent because Lando would have still been ahead had the pitstop gone as planned.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris vows it would be ‘stupid to assume’ McLaren set precedent with F1 Italian GP swap
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