Sauber boss Jonathan Wheatley has suggested that McLaren‘s Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix driver swap was a situation that had been discussed by the team prior to the race.
The Woking-based squad came under intense media scrutiny immediately after Sunday’s race at Monza, in which Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished second and third.
Piastri had leapfrogged his team-mate in the closing stages of the race, after the Brit’s solitary tyre stop was punctuated by a sluggish wheel gun.
But with Norris having occupied second for virtually the whole race, Piastri was asked to give the place back.
Despite a testy response over the radio, Piastri complied, and said after the race that the decision was to “protect the culture” of the team’s principles of how it races.
Piastri suggested that whilst the direct scenario had not been hypothesised in team meetings before, regular talks about similar instances do take place, and said he wasn’t surprised by the request when it came.
“We have had discussions about all kinds of scenarios and when you’re in the same team, when there are things outside a driver’s control, there’s a lot more ways you can rectify things. So it is a discussion we’ve had,” he told media including Motorsport Week after the race.
“I’m sure we’ll review it and discuss more, but it wasn’t a situation that hadn’t been discussed before.”
Wheatley possesses many years of experience in F1, and with top teams such as Red Bull, which has made a number of high-profile team decisions in its time.
The Sauber chief believes that such a discussion would have arisen at some stage, hence the lack of communication over radio.
“I think that would have, I don’t know because I’m not in that team, but they would have obviously talked about how they were going to go about racing and I guess they had a conversation that if there was a team error that swapped positions, I assume this wasn’t a surprise because there didn’t seem to be much radio traffic about it,” he told media including Motorspot Week.
McLaren has ‘learned hard lessons since 2024’ – Wheatley
McLaren has, of course, been at the centre of similar scrutiny last year, after a similar incident at the Hungarian Grand Prix, when Norris was ordered to switch back with Piastri.
When asked if there is a limit to such team orders and where a line could be drawn, Wheatley joked: “How long have you got?” adding that the team had learned a lot from the previous year’s situations
“I think that they obviously learned a lot of hard lessons last year,” he added.
“I’ve been very impressed with how they’ve managed the two drivers fighting the championship this year. I think they were ahead of it.
“They weren’t having a discussion in the race. It’s clearly something that talks about performance.”
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