(Motorsport-Total.com) – McLaren team principal Andrea Stella is satisfied with the decision not to intervene from the outside in the duel between his two drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the 2026 Italian Grand Prix on Sunday. Norris finished the race in Monza in fourth place, Piastri just 0.197 seconds behind in fifth. And the radio communication had hinted that sparks might fly later.
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From lap 48 (of 53) the McLaren duel noticeably intensified. The two had just been overtaken by Max Verstappen on fresher tires. Then on lap 51, exiting Curva Grande, a tricky situation. Norris: “Yes, that was just dangerous, I think.” And: “He just reacted to my move, and that is not allowed.”
Norris had a speed advantage over Piastri coming out of turn 2. But the Australian did not move to the right onto the ideal line exiting Curva Grande – instead, he stayed on the left side of the track. Probably because he could already anticipate Norris’ planned attack in the rearview mirror.
Even though Norris later softened his immediate criticism of Piastri over the radio and clarified that from his perspective everything was fair: “We let them race, and it ended with one car having its wheels in the grass. We will have to look at that,” Stella announced.
Six laps long: How the McLaren duel unfolded
The Piastri-Norris duel ultimately never left the bounds of fairness but was spectacular for six laps. On lap 48, Norris passed his teammate for the first time, exiting Curva Grande. Just one lap later, he was overtaken back at the same spot after not getting a good exit from turn 2.
The situation on lap 51, which Norris initially got upset about on the radio, became so tense because of the world champion himself. According to outside observation, he hoped Piastri would move to the right and therefore looked for a gap on the left that wasn’t there. Piastri remained stoic on his line the entire time, without giving an inch.
The duel remained exciting until the last lap. First, Norris almost rear-ended Piastri in turn 1, forcing him into the runoff area, then he muttered something about “false neutral” (“What the fuck!”) – and the decision seemed half made. But on the approach to the Ascari chicane, Norris unleashed his boost fully and successfully executed a surprise attack.
Now the battery advantage was on Piastri’s side, but the meters ran out for the Australian: He was clearly faster heading to the Parabolica, but the last corner is not a place to attack your own teammate on the last lap. How charged Piastri still was is proven by the fact that he pulled off a spectacular drift right in the middle of the corner.
Stella shares the more moderate stance of his two drivers in hindsight when he says: “In the situation where Lando’s wheels went onto the grass, he called on the radio and said that he had pushed him off or something. But when we looked at it again, we realized the situation was much less wild than it might have seemed in the heat of the moment.”
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What could McLaren have done better as a team?
The big question from McLaren’s perspective in the review is: Could they have at least held Verstappen behind with one car if the command center had issued a team order and the two drivers were not preoccupied with themselves? With a final gap of 4.3 seconds between Verstappen and Norris, it’s a bold but legitimate consideration.
“We thought in that situation that Lando first had to overtake Oscar if he wanted a chance against Max,” Stella explains why McLaren did not intervene. “The two were on the same tires, same number of laps, same car. So we didn’t think we should interfere in the normal race proceedings. We let them race, and we believe that was the right thing to do.”
“Max was simply faster overall. He was just trapped in this loop that exists this year when you lose the slipstream at Monza and have to defend against someone,” Stella explains and announces: “But we will definitely review it again because it’s true: When you fight, you lose time. Could there have been a better way for McLaren to deal with Verstappen? We will analyze it. At the pit wall, we didn’t feel that way, and we wanted to let them race to stay true to our philosophy.”
Stella: Why he sticks to the “Papaya Rules”
Stella admits: “Even though we have the experiences from 2024 and 2025 and even won both world championships in 2025 with an approach based on some important principles – equal treatment, free racing, and fairness – it is always difficult in reality to apply these principles to the actual race proceedings.”
“For example, if you look at today’s race, we again chose an approach that was certainly associated with risks. […] If we tell the drivers they are not allowed to race each other and Lando ends up fifth, he might say: ‘But for fairness, I would have liked the chance to use my opportunities.’ So it’s a difficult balancing act.”
“For our approach, it is important in my opinion that we pull together with the drivers. I think it’s difficult if a team simply says: ‘This is how we do it, and you drivers have to follow.’ You always want to ensure that everyone involved can contribute.”
“But as soon as you realize that the interests of the team are at risk or could suffer, you may have to take a step further and impose stricter rules from the team’s perspective. That is the basis of our approach,” Stella philosophizes and says: “We will definitely have to have some internal talks about this.”
McLaren is not alone with this issue. Just as there will be “talks at Mercedes and Ferrari,” Stella is sure. About his former employer, he says after Monza: “Lewis has spoken very clearly on this topic. I am sure they will also deal with it at Ferrari.”
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