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McLaren will review its “terms of engagement” after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri fought over fourth place in the closing laps of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Team principal Andrea Stella said the team remains committed to allowing its drivers to race, but acknowledged that the internal battle could have cost McLaren time in its fight against Max Verstappen.
Piastri started sixth and Norris eighth in the 53-lap race. Their contest intensified late on, with Norris passing his team-mate on lap 48 to move into fourth. Piastri reclaimed the position one lap later, forcing Norris to launch another attempt with only a handful of laps remaining.
As Norris moved towards a closing gap on the left, he ran out of room and placed two wheels on the grass. The Briton then suggested over team radio that Piastri had “pushed me off”. The incident immediately raised questions about whether McLaren should have intervened, particularly as the two cars were competing for position while Verstappen remained a threat ahead.
The episode also follows Piastri’s late-race reflection on the Monza battle, adding another layer to an increasingly scrutinised McLaren intra-team dynamic.
Stella said McLaren initially saw no reason to interfere because both cars were on the same tyres, with the same tyre age and identical machinery. The team therefore chose to follow its “philosophy of going racing”.
“The two cars were on the same tyres, same tyre age, same car, so we thought there was no need to interfere with the normal development of the race,” Stella explained. “We let them race. We think that was the right thing to do.”
However, he said a review of the incident suggested it was less serious than it appeared in the heat of the moment. “Actually when we reviewed it, I think we saw that the episode is much more benign than what it might have looked,” he said.
McLaren will nevertheless examine whether a different approach could have improved its result. Stella noted that fighting internally can cost both cars time, leaving the team to consider whether it could have presented a stronger challenge to Verstappen.
Stella conceded that McLaren had little realistic chance of defending against Verstappen, who passed both cars to finish third behind George Russell and race winner Kimi Antonelli. “I think overall Max was faster,” he said, adding that Verstappen had been caught by the loss of slipstream at Monza and the energy required to defend from another car.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.