Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris say talks held after Monza and things were discussed further, but there is agreement and reactions won’t change their approach.
With Max Verstappen unlikely to get in the fight, the drivers’ title is all between the McLaren F1 pair of Piastri and Norris. The Australian has 31 points over the Brit, but still not comfortable enough. The fight took another turn in Monza, when team orders were applied to switch places.
The team switched around their strategy where Piastri pitted ahead of Norris despite being behind on track. A slow stop for the Brit compounded their problem as they switched places. To keep it fair, McLaren asked the Australian to give back second to his senior teammate.
Piastri resisted but gave in to keep it fair. In a big F1 title fight, drivers usually are selfish about themselves but the Australian played the fair game as per the ethos of McLaren. Couple of weeks on since the move, he doesn’t feel he did anything wrong to adhere to the team order.
He noted that they held discussions to further clarify things, but insisted that he didn’t deserve second anyways in Monza. With the constructors’ title close to being sealed, both Piastri and Norris don’t think McLaren will change much considering playing fair is their approach.
They are not thinking too much about the reactions since negativity sells these days. They are running against the idea that a winner has to be selfish and ruthless. Piastri additionally revealed his talks with manager Mark Webber, who was aligned with the ethos of the F1 team.
Talks after Monza, all clear –
Piastri: “I mean, naturally, there’s been thoughts, yes. We’ve had good discussions with the team. You know, obviously a highly talked about moment, but yeah, we’ve had a lot of discussions, clarified a lot of things, and we know how we’re going to go racing going forward, which is the most important thing. So, yeah, what’s happened is done, and I’m excited to get racing here. No. I can’t get into every scenario [for future], no. I think, from Monza, there was another factor outside of the slow pit stop, being the order we pitted in – that was a contributing factor to why we swapped. So, that one I’m quite happy to talk about because it’s happened.
“But any other scenarios, again, you can’t plan for every single scenario that’s going to happen. But I think we’re very aligned and ultimately, I respect the team’s decisions and trust that they’ll do their best to make the right ones. I think in exactly the same scenario, then yes, I would expect it to be the same. But I think the likelihood that you’re going to have the exact same scenario is virtually impossible. So, you know, every scenario is going to look different. There was, again, another factor that was ultimately deemed to be the reason for the swap, and I respect that decision. So it’s impossible to know, but if the situation was the same — exactly the same — then I expect it to be repeated.”
Norris: “All exactly as it was. I mean, some things had to be clarified. There were some things at that point that I didn’t know about the undercut from Leclerc. Things I didn’t know, like, say, in my post-race interviews at the time. That also played a part in the reasoning of the decision that the team made. And the fact that it was not just the pit stop which made that decision. It was more so the other things. So, yeah, I mean, clarification, but nothing from the fact that we both agreed with it after and accepted. That’s what we agree as a team.”
Radio call –
Piastri: “No, I’d still stand by it. And that is kind of a decision we’ve made — that a slow pit stop is part of racing. Obviously, in the car at the time, the context wasn’t there about what else had happened in terms of the pit stop sequencing. So, again, it was decided that there was another factor for the reasoning in swapping. So again, every situation is going to look a bit different.
Free to race, any changes –
Piastri: “Not necessarily because of the Constructors’ Championship, but I think we’ve again had a lot of discussions about how we want to go racing. A lot of that is to stay for us because, ultimately, if we give out that information, then we become very easy targets to pick off, because everyone knows what we’re going to do. So that’s all very aligned with all of us but it stays in-house. No. It [constructors’ title] doesn’t change anything in the approach. But I think it’s just, again, a testament to all the hard work from the team. It’s a pretty remarkable position that we’re in — to even be talking about clinching the Constructors’ Championship this early. So it’s just a very proud moment for everybody, myself included. And, yeah, just excited to get back in the car and drive all of their hard work.”
Norris: “I mean, honestly, I think there’s a lot less than you think. This was one of the first things in quite a long time. And like I just said, it wasn’t the fact I had a slow pit stop which was the reasoning. It was more the fact of the changing of positions, the sequencing of things. Which was the same as, I know a very different time, but the same as Hungary last year. That was actually more the reasoning of it combined with the pit stop, which is the decision. So there’s not been many things apart from that. Of course, they try and keep things fair between us. But it’s not been many things where they’ve had to actually get involved and do anything to help one or the other. I mean for 99% of things.
“Of course, how things then look because of something that happened last weekend gives everyone a very different opinion or oversight on things. But if you make it as simple as what happened in Hungary last year was a very similar thing. That the driver in the lead has priority in a pit stop sequence, that’s exactly what we were entering last weekend. That things don’t change. But the fact is as soon as we just re-established the position, Oscar could race me freely. He still had the advantage of starting basically on my gearbox and trying to race me. So he still gained overall. But otherwise, we’ve been free every time to race. It’s just in one lap of a pit sequence is when the lead driver always has priority. And that’s how it’s always been and that’s how it will continue to be. But otherwise, like we said, we’re free to race.”
Had it been for win, would have adhered –
Piastri: “But it wasn’t, so, I don’t know. I wasn’t in that scenario. Would it have made it a bit more difficult? Probably, yes. But I don’t know if the outcome would have been different. I’m not planning on finding myself in that position.”
What Webber said –
Piastri: “Not a lot, really. Yeah, not much. Ultimately, the biggest thing for me from Monza was, it was a weekend where I deserved to finish third. I didn’t deserve to finish second because of the pace I had. I was quick at certain points but not quick enough the whole weekend. And, ultimately, that’s my main takeaway from that — what I’m trying to focus on going forwards. And, you know, Mark is very much on the same page with that. And again, I’ve discussed with the team and with Mark about what happened, and we’re all aligned going forward.
Fan reaction, meddling –
Piastri: “Yes, I do. Again, ultimately, I think my biggest takeaway from Monza was that on pace and my own performance that weekend, I didn’t deserve to finish higher than third — regardless of what else happened in the race. The decision that we made as a team — there’s no right answer to that decision. If we had done the opposite, then you’d have the opposite half of the fans saying that was wrong, and vice versa.
“So ultimately, there’s no correct decision in that. Am I surprised? Not really. Obviously, it was a big moment from the race, and I feel like a lot of fans are quite quick to jump on things that are deemed controversial. So, I’m not that surprised. But I do think we have enough freedom to control our own destiny in the championship.”
Norris: “Not in the world that we live in nowadays. Because that’s all people want to do. Be negative and talk badly about others. So honestly, not a surprise. You also need headlines. You also need people to read things. So not a surprise at all from my side. But it also doesn’t affect us as a team. It’s what you expect nowadays. And I think in the world that we live in, it’s more negativity than ever positivity. Like we said, we continue to do things our way.
“Whether people agree with it or not. It’s not our problem and we don’t really care about that. We’re happy. We focus on ourselves. Of course, you always want good things to come out of it. The team are trying to do a good thing. Whether people agree in the end of the day is not our problem. We want it to be fair. We want it to be equal for both of us. And then people can comment whatever they like after that.”
Mistakes –
Norris: “I mean, there’s a couple. When I just look at my results from last year, Singapore was one of my best last season and others. But Oscar has also improved this season. Even if I had the biggest advantage last year, I’m in some ways a bit behind me. And I have to reset and just look ahead to another season, another weekend. There’s certainly some I feel better at than others. At the same time, the car has changed this year.
“And certainly some of my feelings that I had last year and my confidence level that I had at tracks last year is not the same as what I had this year. Yeah, that’s taken into account too. There’s not been any one of us dominating at any weekend this season. I don’t expect any greatness. I just expect close battles. And therefore, every little thing is important at the minute. And that’s also what I need. Just to keep working hard.”
Here’s Toto Wolff, Jonathan Wheatley on McLaren team order
