\u2018It was fair\u2019: Piastri\u2019s classy response to team orders storm as Norris says \u2018I earnt the right\u2019<\/a><\/p>\nISN\u2019T THIS JUST LIKE THE 2024 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX?<\/p>\n
The instruction from Piastri\u2019s race engineer to cede position came with it a throwback to last year\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix, where Norris had accidentally been promoted into the lead through strategy before being asked to give the place back, after which the Australian eased to his maiden grand prix victory.<\/p>\n
On the surface the circumstances are similar.<\/p>\n
But there are subtle and interesting differences.<\/p>\n
The first is that in Hungary the team knew it was going to undercut Norris ahead of Piastri. It followed through with the strategy knowing it would swap them around.<\/p>\n
In Monza the drivers would have held position without the pit lane error \u2014 but that mistake is \u201call part of racing,\u201d according to Verstappen, who laughed over team radio after hearing what McLaren had done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey run the team how they want to run it,\u201d he later told Sky Sports. \u201cFrom my side, mistakes happen. Sometimes you can have a slow stop or you can make a mistake or have a failure. That\u2019s all part of racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other crucial difference is that Norris encouraged the team to pit Piastri first in an exchange with his engineer, Will Joseph.<\/p>\n
Joseph: \u201cLando we will box this lap onto the soft tyre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norris: \u201cDid you want to box the other car first?\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph: \u201cYep, we\u2019ll do that. We\u2019ll swap it around, so stay out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norris: \u201cWell, only if he doesn\u2019t undercut, otherwise I\u2019ll box first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph: \u201cThere will be no undercut.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chaos as Norris forced off by Verstappen | 00:28<\/p>\n
As the leading driver on the road, Norris got pit stop priority. That gave him the choice to stop first or second. You could argue whatever happened next \u2014 good or bad \u2014 should have been worn by the driver who made the decision<\/p>\n
Piastri said he wasn\u2019t aware that he\u2019d been stopped first in part because Norris had argued for it.<\/p>\n
But Stella didn\u2019t see it that way. As in Hungary last year, he said he saw this as purely a team matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday when we started the pit stop sequencing we started the sequencing of pitting Oscar first but with the clear intent that we would not swap the positions,\u201d McLaren boss Andrea Stella told F1 TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately this compounded with the fact we had a slow pit stop [for Norris], 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure Oscar will be very comfortable with this. He already was comfortable during the race. We show again the values, the principles, that we have at McLaren.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Stella did link those values back to last year\u2019s race in Hungary, he identified that race as only one milestone in the evolution of the team\u2019s racing rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have Hungary, but after Hungary we had so many conversations, so much alignment with each other as to how we go racing, so I don\u2019t think we need to go so far back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we just refer to the principles and the approach that we have in the way we go racing. I think it\u2019s all right.\u201d<\/p>\n
And for the avoidance of doubt, he said there was no inclination to benefit Norris because of last weekend\u2019s power unit problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision we made today doesn\u2019t have to do with what happened in the Netherlands,\u201d he emphasised. \u201cIt\u2019s completely independent of the DNF that the team caused in the Netherlands for Lando.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a completely separate situation. We take one race at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
THE JUSTIFICATIONS<\/p>\n
Despite Piastri\u2019s initially protestation, after the race he appeared happy to toe the team line that justice had been done.<\/p>\n
If there was any pain, it might have been eased by the fact his title lead was cut by only three points.<\/p>\n
But he also alluded to an interesting non-racing justification.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re in opposite teams, then yes, it\u2019s very obvious that you just take the luck that you get,\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cBut when you\u2019re in the same team, it\u2019s the same pit crew, same mechanics \u2014 there\u2019s a lot at stake not just for us [the drivers] but for the whole team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think today the decision to swap back was fair. Lando was ahead of me the whole race. I don\u2019t have any issues with that. But we will definitely discuss it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team element of motorsport is one of its great quirks \u2014 that a driver\u2019s greatest rival is their teammate.<\/p>\n
That also applies to mechanics and engineers inside the team. They\u2019re assigned to one car and become integral to their driver\u2019s championship challenge.<\/p>\n
Pit stops embody motorsport\u2019s fundamental contradiction. A few times each race the mechanics from both sides of the garage come together to service whichever car comes down the lane irrespective of whether it\u2019s their driver.<\/p>\n
McLaren has experience trying to keep both its garages on the same page. In 2007 a representative of Fernando Alonso infamously handed out envelopes stuffed with cash to every mechanic who wasn\u2019t working on Lewis Hamilton\u2019s car in an apparent attempt to curry favour. The team found out and required all the money be donated to charity.<\/p>\n
In 2016 Mercedes even swapped Hamilton and Nico Rosberg\u2019s mechanics in a bid to eliminate the entrenched divisions between garages.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t know whose mechanics were working on Norris\u2019s front-left corner, but the last thing McLaren will want is any excuse to create any sort of tension between the garages. Swapping positions on track takes the heat out of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t want to be the reason to upset one driver or another,\u201d Norris said. \u201cIf I come flat out into my box and I hit all my mechanics out of the way, I don\u2019t expect to get the position back, but today was out of my control.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Briton also argued that it was wrong to suggest he\u2019d ultimately won from the situation.<\/p>\n
While the team order had handed him second place, he rightly pointed out that the team\u2019s mistake had still obliterated what had been a comfortable buffer between him and Piastri, allowing the Australian to race him to the flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy should things get defined like that?\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cWe were free to race after \u2014 in fact he gained from the whole situation \u2014 he had DRS, he could fight against me, so I still lost out through it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same thing would\u2019ve happened if it was vice versa. If I was behind before and he had the worse pit stop and ended up behind, I\u2019d have to let him through.<\/p>\n
\u201cI earnt my right to be ahead, to have that fairness. None of us wants it to happen like this. I don\u2019t. I don\u2019t choose for these things to happen. I don\u2019t want to have to let him past or have to get let past.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t choose these things, but we have to do what we think is correct as a team, do things the fair way. That\u2019s how we want to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a team we don\u2019t care what others say, what other opinions there are about it. We do it the way want to, the way we think is correct, and that\u2019s what we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
BUT WHERE DOES IT END?<\/p>\n
McLaren was damned no matter what it chose to do after Norris\u2019s slow stop. It chose what it felt was the least worst option. Both were arguable.<\/p>\n
But it has now created a precedent for itself.<\/p>\n
Rather than taking its hands off the wheel and allowing the status quo to reign, McLaren has a set a precedent that it will interfere in some situations when it perceives it has done an injustice to one of its drivers.<\/p>\n
On the surface that seems fair enough. Clearly it argues that that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n
But you can extend that logical argument considerably, creating more difficult questions.<\/p>\n
In Imola Piastri should have finished second behind Verstappen but was committed to the wrong strategy. Norris passed him after a late safety car, having been put on a better strategy. Should this no-adverse-outcome rule have applied then?<\/p>\n
In Hungary Piastri was put onto a two-stop strategy that the team didn\u2019t realise was slower than the one-stop strategy it offered Norris after the Briton got a worse start and ended up with nothing to lose. Norris won the race. Should Piastri have been swapped back into the lead as a form of justice?<\/p>\n
What about at the British Grand Prix, where the team said it disagreed with the penalty that dropped Piastri out of a dominant lead and into second behind Norris? There Piastri asked \u2014 searchingly more than expectedly \u2014 whether he should be swapped back into the lead if the team agreed the penalty had been applied in error. The team chose not to do so, and he finished second.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, given Norris\u2019s engine-related DNF in the Netherlands was due to a failure in a part supplied by the team, should Piastri be forced to retire from a race to balance the points?<\/p>\n
Executing any of the above examples feels contrary to what most would accept is simple racing fortune. But they\u2019re logically connected to what happened in Monza.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s fair to correct one team error, why not all of them?<\/p>\n
And would the team still feel comfortable taking this maximalist approach to maintaining fairness if this were the last race of the season? Or the penultimate round? Would Piastri really be expected to hand Norris the title lead later in the season if circumstances created such a scenario?<\/p>\n
And does it tally after Piastri was sent out to slipstream Norris into Q3 on Saturday after the Briton was left vulnerable through mistakes of his own? Getting Norris into Q3 was in the team\u2019s interests, but was it in the interests of fairness?<\/p>\n
McLaren will hope it doesn\u2019t have to face a similar situation again. But with its drivers so closely matched, this surely won\u2019t be the last difficult question it faces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fastest race in history could have long-lasting championship implications. No-one has ever completed a race in quicker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[13273,88574,64,63,31300,88567,88561,11301,2057,817,845,813,816,88560,88576,88573,841,21782,30771,939,88555,2328,1737,88572,21785,825,844,932,88565,16255,88559,88566,36245,88557,88564,88575,77365,88563,25598,2643,88562,88569,3595,85,25539,88571,88554,88556,88570,88568,31283,18251,36244,88558,2062],"class_list":["post-126549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-stella","tag-apparent-attempt","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-championship-battle","tag-comfortable-buffer","tag-dominant-lead","tag-eastern-europe","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-front-left-corner","tag-front-left-wheel","tag-fundamental-contradiction","tag-grand-prix","tag-grand-prix-victory","tag-hungarian-grand","tag-hungary","tag-interesting-non-racing-justification","tag-italy","tag-lando-norris","tag-long-lasting-championship-implications","tag-maiden-grand-prix","tag-max-verstappen","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-monza","tag-natural-justice","tag-netherlands","tag-pit-crew","tag-pit-lane-error","tag-pit-stop","tag-pit-stop-blunder","tag-pit-stop-priority","tag-pit-stops","tag-power-unit-problem","tag-racing-fortune","tag-safety-car","tag-sky-sports","tag-slow-pit-stop","tag-slow-stop","tag-southern-europe","tag-sports","tag-status-quo","tag-straightforward-races-throw","tag-team-element","tag-team-error","tag-team-line","tag-team-matter","tag-team-orders","tag-title-leader","tag-two-stop-strategy","tag-unforced-team-error","tag-western-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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