Mercedes System 1 chief Toto Wolff reckons McLaren’s name to ask Oscar Piastri to let Lando Norris previous after a sluggish cease for Norris within the Italian Grand Prix was a “very troublesome precedent to undo”.
As Norris and Piastri have been heading in the right direction to complete second and third behind dominant winner Max Verstappen, McLaren allowed Piastri to make his solely pitstop earlier than Norris to assist defend his hole to fourth-placed Charles Leclerc.
A sluggish cease for Norris then brought about the Briton to fall behind his team-mate and title rival, however as a result of Piastri obtained pitstop precedence towards the same old order McLaren demanded a puzzled Australian let Norris previous once more.
McLaren’s reasoning was that the choice was the reverse situation of the same staff orders name finally 12 months’s Hungarian Grand Prix, when Piastri fell behind as a result of a robust undercut for Norris, however in accordance with Wolff its Monza name has now set a brand new precedent.
“There is no such thing as a proper and there’s no fallacious, and I am curious to see how that pans out,” Wolff stated. “You set a precedent that may be very troublesome to undo.
“What if the staff does one other mistake and it is not a pitstop… do you turn them round? However then equally, due to a staff mistake, making a driver that’s attempting to catch up lose the factors will not be honest both.
“So, I feel we’re going to get our response of whether or not that was proper right this moment in the direction of the top of the season when it heats up.”
Toto Wolff, Mercedes
Picture by: Joe Portlock / LAT Photographs by way of Getty Photographs
Sauber staff principal Jonathan Wheatley added: “They’d have clearly talked about how they have been going to go about racing, and I assume they’d a dialog that if there was a staff error they’d swapped positions.
“They clearly realized lots of exhausting classes final 12 months. I have been very impressed with how they managed the 2 drivers combating within the championship this 12 months, and I feel they have been forward of it.
“They weren’t having a dialogue within the race, so it is clearly one thing they talked about earlier than.”
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