McLaren to 'review' Norris and Piastri F1 treatment

McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella has confirmed they will review Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s treatment after their team orders debacle at Monza.

After running in second throughout the Italian Grand Prix, Norris was thwarted by a slow pit stop which allowed his team-mate to undercut him, and the Brit dropped down to third.

McLaren then initiated team orders, and forced Piastri to give the position back to Norris, with the Aussie saying on team radio: “We said a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don't really get what's changed here."

The decision was mocked by some, including F1 champion Max Verstappen who commented on the decision with an air of disbelief, and said: “Ha! Just because he had a slow stop?”

Whether McLaren made the right decision has been the subject of debate since Monza, but for team principal Stella the incident was enough to prompt an internal review.

Could Monza team orders tear McLaren apart?

Speaking to the media after the Italian GP, Stella stated that they will ‘review’ their driver arrangement, but this does not necessarily mean they will change how McLaren operates with Norris and Piastri during a race weekend.

"If you think that whatever you do is good and you are not going to have an individual or a team review of anything you do, even the things you do perfectly, simply you're not going to progress," he said.

"For me, reviewing doesn't mean like, 'oh, certainly we will have to change it'. Potentially we will review them, and we will further align on them and we will confirm them. So the fact that I use this word doesn't mean that there will be changes.

"The fact that I use this word means that that's how we approach things at McLaren and this review, which is so essential in engineering, in operation, does apply as well in the way you go racing and does apply in the way you go racing with your drivers."

McLaren can seal the constructors' title this weekend at the Azerbaijan GP, if they outscore nearest title rivals Ferrari by nine points and are also not outscored by Mercedes by 12 points or more and Red Bull by 33 points or more.

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