Lando Norris rubbished suggestions McLaren’s use of team orders on Sunday set a potentially damaging precedent.
McLaren swapped the running order of their drivers in the closing stages of the race after Norris suffered a slow pit stop which dropped him behind team mate Oscar Piastri. McLaren had chosen to pit Piastri first, despite the fact he was running second to his team mate, and told Norris he would not fall behind the other car.
Piastri expressed reservations about the decision during the race. However he backed the team’s decision afterwards, as did Norris.
Asked whether McLaren would repeat the arrangement in future if a slow pit stop also dropped one of their drivers behind rival cars, Norris gave a withering response. “Every situation is different, so it’s pretty stupid just to assume that kind of thing and say that’s the precedent you set,” he replied.
“We’re not idiots and we have plans for different things. If there were four cars in between me and Oscar, of course he’s not going to let me back past, and I don’t think it’s correct that he let me back past [in that scenario].”
Norris said the fact no other cars came between the two McLarens allowed them to reverse the consequences of his slow pit stop.
“In a situation where we weren’t racing [other cars], in a situation where we can just be fair, then you’d expect to be fair, as a team,” he said. “They don’t want to be the reason to upset one driver or another through no fault of their own.”
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He said the slow pit stop was “not my fault” and the team would not have swapped their cars if he had been to blame.
“If I came flat-out into my box and I hit all my mechanics out the way, I also don’t expect to get the position back,” he said, “but [it] was out of my control.
“In the end, I don’t want to win this way through getting given positions or anything like that. And the same thing with Oscar – we don’t want to lose or win like that. But we do what we think is correct as a team, no matter what [others] say or what [their] opinions are, and we stick to doing it our way.”
Piastri agreed the team would not order a position swap which involved giving away positions to other cars. “If it’s within your control and there’s no other cars involved, it’s quite simple. But if there’s other cars involved, we’re not going to give away all of those points to other teams for a mistake.
“When there’s no cars in between, it’s much easier to rectify it. So if there had been more cars in between, then no, we wouldn’t have swapped back because at that point it does just become very unfortunate.”
That is unlikely to change once McLaren clinch the constructors’ championship, which is virtually guaranteed due to their huge points lead. Team principal Andrea Stella said they will continue to operate the same rules if and when the title is won.
“Winning the constructors’ championship is not a trigger for anything,” he told the official F1 channel. “There’s no triggering that has to do with winning the world championship. The only guidance, the only beacon we have is the application of our principles.”
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