McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has delivered a clear statement on why a controversial call was made late in the Italian Grand Prix to swap drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri which was to the detriment of the Australian.
Running second and third behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen, as the lead car, Norris gave up priority at the pit stop phase to Piastri after both had run deep into the race on Pirelli's hard tyres before switching to softs.
Piastri's stop of 1.91s was the fastest for any team this year. Following a lap later, an issue with the front left meant Norris was turned around in just under six seconds, costing him the lead.
When asked by RacingNews365 whether the decision taken was the right one, even if Piastri should lose the title by six points or less to Norris, the swing between finishing second and third at Monza, Stella delivered a stoic response.
Stella said, "The pit stop situation is not only a matter of fairness, it's a matter of consistency with our principles. And however the championship goes, what's important is that it runs within the principles and the racing values that we have, and that we have created together with our drivers.”
"The situation whereby we stopped the drivers is not only related to the pit stop, it's also related to the fact that we wanted to sequence the pit stop of the two cars by stopping Oscar first and then Lando. And we had the clear intent that these should not have led to a swap of position. It was just done because we were covering [Charles] Leclerc,” he added.
Slow pit stops are part of racing, yet Piastri was informed to cede position to Norris, and beyond that, race to the chequered flag.