Former Formula 1 driver Nico Rosberg has delivered his verdict on the McLaren team orders during the Italian Grand Prix, relating the situation to his championship title fight with his Mercedes team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, in 2016.
During the latter stages of the Italian Grand Prix at the historic Monza circuit, McLaren chose to pit Oscar Piastri one lap ahead of Lando Norris with the confidence that this would not allow the Australian driver to undercut Norris, who was leading the two McLaren drivers at the time in second and third. But a slow pitstop for Norris meant that Piastri was ahead of the Briton when he returned to the track.
As a result, Piastri was ordered to give the place back to his team-mate with the proviso that they were free to race after that. Norris finished the race in second behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and Piastri crossed the line in third.
“A lot of people will not like it, a lot of people will think it makes sense,” 2016 world champion Rosberg explained on the Sky Sports F1 Show podcast.
“I was happy they did that because with my hat that I have on, I want a super-exciting Formula 1 championship until the very end.
“So, I was happy that in that case Lando had the opportunity to get the deserved points since he personally did a better job than Oscar in the Monza weekend. So, I thought it was good that they did that. But it’s impossible. There’s no right or wrong.”
The decision from the Woking outfit has faced a large amount of scrutiny following the race. Although the slow pitstop was not Norris’s fault, some argue that it is part of racing and Piastri should have been allowed to capitalise on that. Others have backed McLaren’s choice as Norris had been comfortably ahead of his team-mate prior to the slow stop.
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images
“The first step is, is it clearly defined in the rules?” Rosberg added. “And I can tell you that it’s not defined in the papaya rules, because it’s not something that you can put down in a rule. It’s so hard because where’s the cut-off point to that?
“The undercut is not what played the dice here. The problem is just the time lost in the pit stop, it’s not the undercut.”
Rosberg experienced a similar situation during the 2016 season while fighting for the championship against his Mercedes team-mate Hamilton. He recounted that the team ordered him to let Hamilton pass during the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix in order to chase Daniel Ricciardo for the race win, which he did. Hamilton was then asked to assist his team-mate during the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“We had very clear silver rules, not papaya rules, silver rules,” he continued. “If we risk losing the race win to a competitor, we need to work together as a team to secure the race win. Monaco Grand Prix 2016, I’m racing against Lewis for the championship. I’m second, he is third, and Ricciardo is disappearing in the distance because I’m too slow.
“There’s a threat that we as a team are losing the race win. It’s clear. So the team comes on the radio and tells me: ‘You need to let Lewis pass because we might lose the race win here otherwise.’ So I moved over and waved him past because it was clearly defined and, of course, it’s hard in the moment, but it’s then clear and easy to understand and you just got to do it.
“Lewis didn’t do it in Abu Dhabi, which was the same situation, but also that is understandable that you wouldn’t then. If you’re an assassin, you want to try and maximise the grey areas.
“But it all depends how clearly it’s written down in the rules, but you cannot write something like that down in the rules because pitstop times are always a part of racing and the team cannot ensure that everybody’s always going to have the same pitstop times. It’s just like, at which point is it really unfair? It’s really hard.
“McLaren chose the better way, which was to redo the positions like before, because they messed up as a team and it’s not fair to get involved in that way in the drivers’ championship. So they took the route that was definitely better, but both routes were bad.”
Rosberg went on to win the championship in 2016 before retiring from F1.
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