Oscar Piastri should have disobeyed team orders

Max Verstappen simply laughed to his race engineer when he was told that Oscar Piastri had let McLaren team-mate Lando Norris through to take second place. “Ha! Just because he had a slow stop?” was the Monza race winner’s curt view of McLaren’s team order. The situation was a little more complex than that, but the Dutchman was fundamentally right.

McLaren have been resolute in their desire to keep the championship fight between their two drivers fair and harmonious and that manifested itself in an extreme form on Sunday night. Their caution is understandable as intra-team rivalries can be ruinous.

McLaren know that from when Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost faced off in the late-1980s. This year they have two fast and evenly matched drivers and one of them will win their first drivers’ championship this season.

So far the team, led by Zac Brown and Andrea Stella, have managed the situation well, even when Norris rear-ended Piastri in Canada. Yet what happened in Monza on Sunday was a misstep, and one that could have unforeseen and negative consequences.

Making the switch would have been more understandable were nothing but second and third in this race at stake. Yet a title is on the line – in 75 years of the F1 world championship only 34 men have managed that.

McLaren desire total and absolute fairness, yet that is not within their gift. Motorsport is far too subject to fortune – such as Norris’s mechanical retirement from the previous race in Zandvoort - that no team should be trying to manufacture 100 per cent fairness. It is impossible, even ludicrous. It benefits the team to keep the relationship between the drivers harmonious, of course, but that cannot be kept indefinitely or balanced perfectly.

Piastri clearly did not want to comply when told to move over on the team radio. “I mean... we said that a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what changed here. But I’ll do it.” An understandable reaction.

After the race, both drivers toed the party line about fairness and said they agreed with the call. You suspect that Piastri will have questions about what happens if this situation is repeated or reversed in the remaining eight rounds.

McLaren talk so often about clearly defined rules of engagement between their two drivers, but the situation could become muddy. The ultimate conclusion of McLaren’s pit-wall decision at Monza could be more tension and division in the team, not less.

For Norris, losing out to Piastri (and twice in two weeks, through no fault of his own) would have been harsh. After all, Piastri only found himself ahead because Norris chose not to prioritise his own race in order to protect his team-mate from being caught by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. Normally the lead driver in a team stops first to enjoy the pace benefit of fresh tyres a lap earlier.

Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri on the Italian Grand Prix podiumCredit: Getty Images

Norris was not entirely blameless, though. He should have known that he could be vulnerable to Piastri, who was closing in and faster at the time, were he to pit after him and have a slow stop. And so it turned out.

Does this all matter in the title race, given Piastri’s 31-point lead? While the points difference between finishing second or third is just three points, the effective swing here was six points. Piastri could have gone into the final eight rounds 37 points ahead.

Piastri would have been well within his rights had he decided not to let Norris pass after being put in a tricky situation by his team. Yes, Piastri has a decent buffer but were he to suffer a non-finish like Norris in the run-in, then there would likely be little in it.

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As quick (and young) as Piastri is, this could be his only chance to win a championship in his career. Can you imagine Verstappen, Michael Schumacher or even Fernando Alonso complying in this manner? No chance.

We should not have looked at Piastri any less favourably had he disobeyed his team, but McLaren should not have put him in that situation. In the end Piastri chose to play the team game. The odds are that Monza will not make a difference. You just hope that Piastri does not come to regret moving over for Norris in three months’ time and that McLaren can start to take a step back.

London Daily Telegraph

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