Oscar Piastri shoots down Lando Norris sabotage theory

In the fraught final moments of qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix last weekend, McLaren’s plan was for Oscar Piastri to run ahead of team-mate Lando Norris on-track, giving him the benefit of a ‘tow’ on the straight. But Piastri locked a wheel into the first corner, ran over the asphalt run-off at the chicane, and aborted his lap.

Naturally there were those who concluded that this was a cynical attempt to spoil his team-mate’s lap, since Piastri – with a tow from Norris on his first run – had set a time that would be good enough for provisional third on the grid after the chequered flag. Norris reckoned that running in clear air at the front of his field cost him three tenths of a second on a track where slipstreaming is essential.

That consigned Norris to eighth on the grid, while Piastri ultimately started sixth after picking up a penalty for impeding Liam Lawson’s Red Bull earlier in the session.

Believers in the ‘deliberate accident’ theory pointed to the fact that Piastri checked up straight away after taking to the run-off, when there might still have been an opportunity to ‘tow’ Norris elsewhere on the lap.

“Yes, there probably was,” Piastri told media including Motorsport.com ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

“But when you lock up and miss the corner, the first thing you think about is how to get out of the way, not do anything else. Yes, in hindsight, maybe I could have done things a bit differently, but I think in the moment, to expect anything else was probably a pretty big ask, in my opinion.

“Could we do things better next time? Yes. I think the first thing is to make sure we’re not… Well, it’s always tricky from where we are in the pitlane, but clearly in Monza, being the first two cars out of the pitlane, we were never going to improve. We were kind of doomed before we even started our laps, but yes, we could have done a bit better.”

McLaren allowed its drivers to race each other freely at Monza

Photo by: Getty Images

During that final Q3 run the McLarens were in the disadvantageous position of running first and second on track, a consequence of being in a garage at the opposite end of the pitlane from the exit. That made the job of judging the optimum time to leave the garage quite challenging, as team principal Andrea Stella explained at the time.

“At no point this should be an excuse,” he said, “that when you are at the first garage, then you need to be a little bit careful about leaving the garage too late, because if you are the last one, there’s a risk that then you’re not going to be in time opening the lap.

“So that’s also why we found ourselves being first, but probably we have to review the margins that we adopted, because then being first with the slipstream effect that we have this year seems definitely a position that you don’t want to be.”

During the final phase of the race, when the McLarens were running behind third-placed Max Verstappen, Norris caught Piastri and tried to pass on the outside line towards the second chicane, but put two wheels on the grass. At the time he complained over the radio that Piastri had pushed him off the track, but softened his position later.

“Things could have turned a lot more nasty than they were last year if we decided to handle things differently” Oscar Piastri

McLaren’s position is that its drivers are free to race each other so long as they don’t take each other off – in contrast to Ferrari, where confusion seems to reign over racing etiquette. But McLaren faced a lot of criticism last year based on the perception that it was favouring Norris in the battle for the world championship.

“The moment in which Lando put the wheels on the grass, he came on the radio, he made a comment like ‘he pushed me off’ or something,” said Stella, “but actually when we reviewed it, I think we saw that the episode is much more benign than what it might have looked in the heat of the moment.

“So I think it’s something that certainly we will review in the context of this kind of racing. As soon as you fight with each other, then you may lose time.

“So was there a better way for McLaren to give a fight to Verstappen? We will review. It wasn’t obvious to us at the pitwall, and we thought that it was more important to let them race according to our philosophy of going racing.”

The on-track events of last weekend demonstrate the perils of managing the dynamic between highly competitive team-mates. Ferrari’s race ended in rancour, with Lewis Hamilton accusing Charles Leclerc of pushing him off at the first corner, and pointing out that the team had no proper “rules of engagement”.

Clash between Ferrari’s drivers at Monza prompted Hamilton to complain about rules of engagement – or lack thereof

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

Mercedes, meanwhile, had to step in mid-race to point out to its drivers that their squabble was preventing them from pulling away from Max Verstappen.

“I think the biggest thing is making things clear and having no surprises,” said Piastri of McLaren’s approach to managing its drivers.

“It’s very hard to avoid those surprises, and they’re going to happen at times. But the more you can minimise it, the easier things will be and the better the relationships will be.

“Obviously every team has a slightly different way of going racing. But I think for me that’s been a big key to our success over the years.

“I think last year was probably the perfect example. Things could have turned a lot more nasty than they were last year if we decided to handle things differently, both as drivers and as a team.

“So, yeah, I think for us that’s always been the biggest thing, just being open. Also, if you’re frustrated with something, make sure that people know.”

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– The Motorsport.com Team