Verstappen Mocks McLaren’s Strategy at the Italian Grand Prix
In the final laps of the Italian Grand Prix, while heading towards victory, Max Verstappen couldn’t help but laugh at the situation of the orange cars following him. Upon being informed that title contenders and teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had swapped positions on instructions from their McLaren team, the Red Bull driver couldn’t contain his laughter. “Ha! Just because [Norris] had a slow pit stop?” The situation that unfolded in the race was astonishing, especially in such a close fight for the title. It all started after McLaren’s pit stops. Verstappen stopped earlier, yielding position on the track, while the team opted to stop as late as possible, seeking to capitalize on a Safety Car period. This is a common strategy to chase the leader. What followed was unconventional. Piastri, being the second car, entered the pits first and his stop was impeccable, with the McLaren team sending him off in 1.9 seconds. Norris’s stop a lap later did not meet the standard, as he was stationary for four more seconds, enough time for him to come out behind his teammate and rival. For a moment, it seemed like it would be another blow for the driver whose championship hopes had suffered a setback at the Dutch Grand Prix. However, before anyone could contemplate the possibility of Piastri’s lead increasing from 34 to 37 points, McLaren intervened, asking the Australian to let his teammate pass for the sake of justice, a word that was repeated many times in the following hours.Piastri yielded and Norris regained second position, which meant his lead in the title was reduced to 31 points, a change of six points that could have serious implications in the fight for the title. It’s unlikely that Verstappen would have reacted the same way. His radio message was answer enough to the question of how he would have responded.“We said a slow pit stop was part of racing,” Piastri said. “I don’t really see what has changed here. But if you want me to, I will”.
Oscar Piastri
Verstappen and Red Bull notably contrast with the McLaren team. Often, and with reason, considered a one-man team, it’s difficult to imagine the same situation at Red Bull. Verstappen refused a team order to let his then-teammate Sergio Pérez pass in the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix, when he was already world champion. Verstappen’s rebellion was not punished. On the contrary, McLaren has maintained a balance throughout the year, trying to provide a fair playing field for its two drivers, both involved in an intense battle for the title from the start of the season. Both drivers are remarkably evenly matched and often find themselves in sight of each other during the races; Monza was no different. Before analyzing what happened, it should be noted that McLaren’s latest controversy has a solid basis. Since McLaren’s CEO, Zak Brown, signed Piastri from the Alpine academy and placed him alongside Norris in 2023, he has been convinced that he has the best driver lineup in modern Formula 1. It has been difficult to argue with him, as both won races last season, and even more so since they have traded blows during this 2025 season as rivals for the championship.“I know you want a funny answer about that, but it’s not my problem,” Verstappen said in Sunday night’s press conference, flanked by Norris and Piastri. Pressed a second time: “Again, it’s not my problem. It’s better not to talk about it.”
Max Verstappen
“Regardless of how the championship goes, the important thing is that it unfolds within the principles and sporting justice that we have at McLaren, and that we have created with our drivers,” said Stella. By the time he got out of the car, Piastri dismissed any suggestion that he would complain afterwards.
Andrea Stella
“We are not idiots, we have plans for different things,” Norris said. “If there were four cars between me and Oscar, of course I wouldn’t let myself be passed again. But in a situation where we weren’t racing, in a situation where we can be fair, then you would expect to be fair as a team. They don’t want to be the reason for upsetting one driver or another without it being their fault, and today it wasn’t my fault.
Lando Norris
“So, if I were to come into my pit at full speed and hit all my mechanics, I wouldn’t expect to regain the position either. But today it was out of my control. In the end, I don’t want to win that way, by gaining positions or anything like that. And the same with Oscar. But we also don’t want to lose a victory like that. We do what we think is right as a team, no matter what you say or what your opinions are, and we stick to doing it our way.”
Piastri hinted that McLaren’s constructors’ championship, which they will retain with ease, is also an important factor.
McLaren said it would review the last laps of Monza in the weeks leading up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on September 21. One thing is for sure, there will be no change of focus.“I think if it’s under your control and there are no other cars involved, it’s quite simple,” Piastri said. “But if there are other cars involved, we are not going to give up all those points to other teams because of a mistake. When there are no cars in between, it’s much easier to rectify it. So, to answer your question, if there had been more cars in between, then no, we wouldn’t have changed because at that point it becomes very unfortunate.”
Oscar Piastri
“We will potentially review and align them more and confirm them. So, the fact that I use this word doesn’t mean there will be changes. The fact that I use this word means that this is how we approach things at McLaren. “And this review, which is so essential in engineering, in operation, also applies to the way you compete, and it applies to the way you compete with your drivers.”“If you think what you do is good and you are not going to have an individual or team review of anything you do, even what you do perfectly, you are simply not going to progress”, said Stella. “So for me, reviewing doesn’t mean, ‘Oh, we will certainly have to change it’.
Andrea Stella
“I think today was a fair request,” he said. “Lando qualified ahead, was ahead for the whole race and lost that position through no fault of his own.
Oscar Piastri
“I said what I needed to say on the radio. And once I got the second request, I’m not going to go against the team, I think there’s a lot of people to protect and a culture to protect outside of Lando and ultimately that’s something very important in the future.”
It’s a truly admirable approach in a sport where the pursuit of victory often comes at any price, but Sunday demonstrated where the limits lie. By adhering so closely to the determination of fairness, McLaren risks boxing themselves in during the title fight. Sunday looked like a team, even with the best motivations, overthinking and meddling in a championship fight that seems to have many more twists and turns to come in the remaining eight races. Sunday’s team order and Piastri’s decision to follow it have tarnished what should be the team’s decisions in the future.
McLaren’s approach to its two drivers hasn’t suddenly changed overnight, but it has been put to the test on multiple occasions. Two examples from 2024 stand out above all else. First was Piastri’s victory in Hungary last summer, which came after Norris finally agreed to obey a team order to let the Australian through after he was unfairly taken out of the lead (according to McLaren and Piastri) in the pit stop window. Then came this same place, the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, and the infamous “papaya rules” moment: 24 hours after Stella gave the team’s race rules that catchy nickname, it almost ended in a humiliating way. On the first lap, Piastri veered to the outside of Norris to take the lead, almost forcing his teammate to spin. The moment also allowed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to move into second place, providing him with the springboard for his popular home victory. The reason for the difference in approach was simply: the two men had a different understanding of what the team’s policy meant. Piastri felt that the “papaya rules” meant that you could attack aggressively, but without taking unnecessary risks; Norris felt that Piastri would not make such a risky maneuver in that position. The rules were clarified later.
The conversation about team orders has only grown this year, now that McLaren’s drivers are rivals for the championship. With those two moments from 2024 in mind, the team has been much more precise in how it has established possible critical points like Sunday’s.
Although Piastri’s radio message had suggested that a failed pit stop was not something the team considered to warrant a team order, Norris contradicted that once the race was over. When asked if he ever doubted that Piastri would move, Norris said: “No. Because that’s what we decided as a team and that’s what we all agreed on. So…”
While much of the attention will be focused on the team order itself, McLaren created the messy situation by the way it stopped the drivers. Usually, the leading car gets the first pit stop, giving the driver the opportunity to have the first laps on new tires. A change of convention made sense for those making the decisions at this point: a safety car shortly after Norris made his pit stop would have dropped him to third place and potentially given Piastri the opportunity to stop for free and stay ahead, or at least ahead of Norris. That in itself would have been a headache.
In justifying the later call, Stella was quick to emphasize this point.
But this insistence on correcting errors has not been entirely consistent. Piastri lost the British Grand Prix due to a penalty for his driving under the safety car. On that occasion, perhaps with other meetings about team orders in mind, Piastri opened his radio channel to suggest that, if McLaren considered the penalty harsh like him, they should swap positions. McLaren refused on that occasion. Situationally, he is comparing apples and oranges, but it sums up how delicate the team has become and raises a broader question: who decides what is fair and unfair, and what are the criteria for doing so? And will calls for equity accumulate to scrutiny once a race is over? The closer we get to the climax of the championship, the more these calls will be talked about. A team boss who knows the headaches that come with two teammates competing for the drivers’ championship is Toto Wolff, who had to manage the growing rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg between 2014 and 2016. Wolff suggested that McLaren had opened a Pandora’s Box in Monza.“We look for the team’s interest to capitalize as much as possible, and in the team’s interests we had to go first with Oscar and then with Lando. But the clear intention was that this was not going to deliver a position swap. So the fact that we went first with Oscar, compounded by Lando’s slow pit stop, led to a position swap. And we thought it was absolutely the right thing to go back to the pre-existing situation to the pit stop and then let the guys race. This is what we did and this is what we believe complies with our principles.”
Andrea Stella
Wolff later added: “What is a team error? What if next time the car doesn’t start and you lose a position or whatever, the suspension breaks? What do you do then in the next one? So you could have a cascade of events that are a bit, or precedents, that can be very difficult to manage.” Those are fair questions to consider. And with only failed pit stops, there’s no guarantee that the next one will be easily reversible. In Sunday’s press conference, McLaren’s drivers were asked how the team would respond if, in one of the remaining 2025 races, one of them had a perfect weekend ruined by a late and slow pit stop, but finished behind their teammate and a rival who doesn’t drive a car with McLaren’s papaya orange tone.“Super interesting question,” Wolff said when asked about McLaren’s call. “There is no right or wrong. And I’m curious to see how that ends. You set a precedent that is very difficult to undo. What if the team makes another mistake and it’s not a pit stop, do you change them? But equally, because of a team error, making a driver who is trying to catch up, lose points, is not fair either. So I think we’re going to get our answer as to whether that was correct today towards the end of the season when it heats up.”
Toto Wolff
“We are not idiots, we have plans for different things,” Norris said. “If there were four cars between me and Oscar, of course I wouldn’t let myself be passed again. But in a situation where we weren’t racing, in a situation where we can be fair, then you would expect to be fair as a team. They don’t want to be the reason for upsetting one driver or another without it being their fault, and today it wasn’t my fault.
Lando Norris
“So, if I were to arrive at my pit at full speed and hit all my mechanics, I wouldn’t expect to regain the position either. But today it was out of my control. In the end, I don’t want to win that way, by gaining positions or anything like that. And the same with Oscar. But we also don’t want to lose a victory like that. We do what we believe is right as a team, no matter what you say or what your opinions are, and we stick to doing it our way.”
Piastri hinted that McLaren’s constructors’ championship, which they will easily retain, is also an important factor.
McLaren said it would review the last laps of Monza in the weeks leading up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on September 21. One thing is for sure, there will be no change of focus.“I think if it’s under your control and there are no other cars involved, it’s pretty simple,” Piastri said. “But if there are other cars involved, we are not going to give up all those points to other teams because of a mistake. When there are no cars in between, it’s much easier to rectify it. So, to answer your question, if there had been more cars in between, then no, we wouldn’t have changed because at that point it becomes very unfortunate.”
Oscar Piastri
“We will potentially review and align them more and confirm them. So, the fact that I use this word doesn’t mean there will be changes. The fact that I use this word means that this is how we approach things at McLaren. “And this review, which is so essential in engineering, in operation, also applies to the way you compete, and applies to the way you compete with your drivers.”“If you think what you do is good and you are not going to have an individual or team review of anything you do, even what you do perfectly, you simply are not going to progress”, said Stella. “So for me, reviewing doesn’t mean, ‘Oh, we will certainly have to change it’.
Andrea Stella
