Stella explains McLaren’s team orders at Monza as he insists late-race swap underlines ‘our values and principles’

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has opened up on the team orders situation that made headlines after the Italian Grand Prix, stressing how the outfit’s actions backed up their “values and principles”.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri spent much of Sunday’s race running in second and third respectively, before moving into a temporary 1-2 when Red Bull rival Max Verstappen pitted earlier on a different strategy.

McLaren left it until Lap 45 to pit Piastri and Lap 46 to pit Norris, but a slow stop for the latter meant he lost out to his team mate and rejoined the action in third position – potentially costing him more ground in the title race.

However, McLaren acted quickly by asking Piastri to move aside for Norris, reminding the Australian of last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix and being told that the pair would be free to race to the chequered flag.

As it transpired, Norris had enough in hand over Piastri during the final laps to secure second and reduce his team mate’s championship lead from 34 points to 31, with all parties being asked for their thoughts on the situation post-race.

“Let me start by saying that the decision we made today doesn’t have [anything] to do with what happened in the Netherlands – it’s completely independent of the DNF that the team caused for Lando,” Stella told F1 TV. “This is a completely separate situation and we take one race at a time.

“Today, when we started the pit stop sequencing, we started the sequencing pitting Oscar first but with the clear intent that we would have not swapped the positions. Unfortunately, this compounded with the fact that we had a slow pit stop [for Norris].

“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 stops. I’m sure Oscar will be very comfortable with this; he already was comfortable during the race.

“We showed again the values and the principles we have at McLaren.”

Asked about the radio call that referenced Norris moving over for Piastri at the Hungaroring last season, and whether it was the best way to ensure the Australian would understand the call, Stella added: “Of course, we had Hungary, but after Hungary we had so many conversations, so much alignment with each other as to how we go racing, so I don’t think we need to go so far back.

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