McLaren: Monza F1 driver swap was “a matter of fairness”

McLaren’s decision to swap positions between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri during Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix was a matter of “fairness” and “consistency of principles”, per team principal Andrea Stella.

The Woking-based squad found itself facing scrutiny during the race when, after Norris suffered a slow pitstop and dropped behind Piastri, it elected to swap the drivers around. This put the Briton back into second, and the Australian was demoted to third.

In the lead-up to the swap, Piastri reluctantly complied with the order to let Norris back past, but had contended that slow-pitstop incidents should be considered “part of racing”.

The result allowed Norris to claw back three points on Piastri instead of losing three, closing the gap between the two championship protagonists down to 31 points.

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Stella addressed the incident after the race, stating that the decision to swap the drivers back fitted “within the principles” that McLaren likes to compete with as it seeks to preserve equity between drivers.

He added that the decision to pit Piastri first was done with the intent of preserving position, and that pursuing this with the switchback was in “the team interest”.

“I think that the pitstop situation is not only a matter of fairness, it’s a matter of consistency with our principles,” Stella explained.

“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.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

“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.”

Stella said that McLaren would review what caused the slow stop to begin with. He confirmed that the team had run long on the medium so that, in the event there was a late-race safety car, McLaren could attempt the overlap on Verstappen with a tyre delta on softs, versus the Red Bull’s hard tyres.

Asked if McLaren wanted to review those principles, Stella responded that the team was in constant review of its processes – but that did not mean it would make any changes.

“If you think that whatever you do is good and you’re not going to have an individual or a team review of anything you do, even the thing you do perfectly, simply you’re not going to progress,” he added.

“So for me reviewing, it doesn’t mean like, ‘oh, certainly we will have to change it’. Potentially we will review them and we will further align on them and we will confirm them. So the fact that I use this word doesn’t mean that there will be changes.

“The fact that I use this word means that that’s how we approach things at McLaren.

“And this review, which is so essential in engineering, in operation, does apply as well in the way you go racing, and does apply in the way you go racing with your drivers.”