Swapping Piastri and Norris was “the fair thing to do” for McLaren – Stella

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says Oscar Piastri will accept the team’s decision to swap their drivers’ positions during the Italian Grand Prix.

The team instructed Piastri to let his team mate Lando Norris by into second place after the pair made their final pit stops.

Norris ran ahead of Piastri throughout the race until the pair pitted. While teams normally give pit stop priority to the leading driver, McLaren chose to bring Piastri in first because he was under threat from Charles Leclerc behind him.

However when the team brought Norris in on the next lap, his tyre change was slow. They therefore instructed Piastri to let Norris into second.

Piastri complied with the order but questioned the decision on his radio, pointing out that slow pit stops routinely happen in racing. However Stella stood by the call and said he expected Piastri will accept it.

The decision comes one week after Norris suffered a retirement due to a technical failure on his McLaren in the final laps of the Dutch Grand Prix. However Stella said the team’s decision was not influenced by Norris’s misfortune in Zandvoort.

“The decision we made today doesn’t have to do with what happened in the Netherlands,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “It’s completely independent of the DNF that the team caused in the Netherlands for Lando. This is a completely separate situation and we take one race at a time.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and

He said Piastri will accept the team’s decision to move him back behind his team mate.

“Today, when we started the pit stop sequencing, we started the sequence pitting Oscar first, but with a clear intent that we would not swap the positions. Unfortunately, this compounded with the fact that we had a slow pit stop.

“But because we had the sequence with Oscar first and then the slow pit stop, we thought that the fair thing to do was to go back to the positions that we had before the pit stop.

“I’m sure Oscar will be very comfortable with this. He already was comfortable during the race. So we show again the values, the principles that we have at McLaren.”

McLaren issued a similar instruction during the Hungarian Grand Prix last year. On that occasion Norris moved ahead of his team mate because he pitted before him, though Piastri’s pit stop was not especially slow. Norris resisted the team’s calls to swap the running order for several laps before eventually letting Piastri by to win.

Stella said McLaren had “so many conversations” after that race and found “alignment with each other as to how we go racing.”

“We just stick and refer to the principles and the approach that we have in the way we go racing. I think it’s all right.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and

You say

Did McLaren do the right thing by swapping their drivers around? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.

Do you agree McLaren were right to tell Piastri to let Norris pass him?

• No opinion (0%)
• Strongly disagree (35%)
• Slightly disagree (15%)
• Neither agree nor disagree (5%)
• Slightly agree (15%)
• Strongly agree (30%)

Total Voters: 20

 Loading …

A RaceFans account is required in order to vote. If you do not have one, register an account here or read more about registering here. When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.

2025 Italian Grand Prix

• Bearman now two penalty points away from race ban after Sainz collision
• Swapping Piastri and Norris was “the fair thing to do” for McLaren – Stella
• Verstappen dominates Italian GP as Piastri gives Norris second under orders
• Vote for your 2025 Italian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend
• 2025 Italian Grand Prix race result and championship points

Browse all 2025 Italian Grand Prix articles