(Motorsport-Total.com) – In the highly tense final minutes of qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix last weekend, McLaren’s plan was for Oscar Piastri to go out on track ahead of his teammate Lando Norris to give him the advantage of a slipstream on the straight.
Read more Driving too easy in 2026? Tsunoda responds to Verstappen statement
But Piastri locked a wheel before the first corner, skidded over the asphalt runoff area of the chicane, and aborted his lap.
Of course, there were voices that suspected a cynical attempt to deliberately ruin his teammate’s lap. After all, Piastri – aided by Norris’s slipstream on his first attempt – had set a time that was enough for provisional third place on the grid after the checkered flag was waved.
Norris estimated that driving at the front of the field without a slipstream cost him about three tenths of a second on a track where the slipstream effect is essential. This relegated Norris to eighth on the grid, while Piastri, after a penalty for holding up Liam Lawson’s Red Bull earlier in the session, ultimately started from sixth place.
Supporters of the intentional theory pointed out that Piastri immediately slowed down after entering the runoff area – although there might still have been an opportunity later in the lap to give Norris a slipstream.
Piastri: You don’t think about that at first…
“Yes, probably there was,” Piastri explained ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. “But if you lock up and miss the corner, the first thing you think about is how to get out of the way – and nothing else.”
“Yes, in hindsight I might have handled things a bit differently. But I think expecting something else in that moment was, in my opinion, asking a lot,” said the Australian. He emphasized: “Can we do better next time? Yes.”
McLaren’s problem in Monza, however, was the pit lane position. As the world champion team, McLaren has the first garage and must also leave the garage first in terms of timing, while the competition can react. “We were basically doomed before we even went out on our laps,” said Piastri.
Monza: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
But for team principal Andrea Stella, that cannot be an excuse. “If you are at the first garage, you have to be careful not to leave too late. Because if you are the last, there is a risk that you won’t make it over the line in time to start your lap,” he said.
“That’s why we found ourselves in first place. But we probably need to review the safety margins we chose. Because with the slipstream effect we have this year, the first position is definitely the place you don’t want to be.”
In the final phase of the race, when the McLarens were behind third-placed Max Verstappen, Norris caught up with Piastri and tried to overtake him on the outside before the second chicane but went onto the grass with two wheels. Over the radio, he initially complained that Piastri had pushed him off the track but later softened his stance.
Read more The Friday drivers of Formula 1 2026 at a glance
McLaren let its drivers race freely
McLaren’s position is that its drivers are allowed to race each other as long as they don’t push each other off the track – unlike Ferrari, where there apparently is confusion regarding on-track behavior rules.
Nevertheless, McLaren faced a lot of criticism last year because it appeared Norris was being favored in the fight for the world championship.
“The moment Lando went onto the grass with his wheels, he radioed and made a comment like ‘He pushed me off’ or something,” said Stella. “But when we reviewed it again, we found the incident was much less serious than it might have seemed in the heat of the moment.”
“So it’s something we will certainly analyze in the context of this kind of battle. Once you fight each other, you might lose time,” said the team principal.
“So was there a better way for McLaren to stand up to Verstappen? We will check that. From the pit wall, it was not obvious to us, and we thought it was more important to let them race each other according to our philosophy of free racing.”
The incidents on track last weekend highlight the pitfalls of managing two extremely ambitious teammates. Ferrari’s race ended in mudslinging and frustration after Lewis Hamilton accused Charles Leclerc of pushing him off in the first corner and noted that the team has no reasonable behavior rules.
Piastri: Communication is key
Meanwhile, Mercedes had to intervene mid-race to remind its drivers that their skirmishing was preventing them from pulling away from Max Verstappen. “I think the most important thing is to address things clearly and allow no surprises,” Piastri said about McLaren’s approach to dealing with its drivers.
“It’s very hard to completely avoid such surprises, and they will happen from time to time. But the more you can minimize them, the easier everything becomes and the better the relationships stay.”
“Of course, every team has a slightly different way of racing. For me, that has been a crucial key to our success in recent years,” he continued. “Last year was probably the perfect example. Things could have gotten much uglier if we had decided to handle situations differently – both as drivers and as a team.”
“That’s why for us it was always the very first thing: just be open. And if something frustrates you, make sure the others know it too.”
Read more George Russell: «The reality is, Kimi is currently driving better than me»