Andrea Stella asserts McLaren’s ‘clear intent’ following Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s pit stop debacle

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Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had to settle for the final two spots on the podium at the Italian Grand Prix due to an incredible performance from Max Verstappen, but a slow pit stop for Norris has risked opening up a can of worms for the team in Papaya.

The team orders coming from the McLaren pit wall have been hotly debated throughout the 2025 season due to the fact that both drivers are competing against each other for their maiden F1 title.

McLaren used team orders to stop Piastri in Melbourne during the very first race of the season, and they have been present ever since.

After winning in Zandvoort last weekend and benefiting from Norris‘ retirement, Piastri held a 34-point lead over his McLaren teammate in the drivers’ standings. Their recent result at Monza now sees Piastri lead by 31 points.

READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Andrea Stella told reporters that the team orders were a ‘completely separate’ situation from Lando Norris’ DNF in Zandvoort

Speaking to Formula 1 in the pit lane following the conclusion of the race, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was asked to talk about the orders that were given to Piastri following the slow pit stop.

The McLaren team principal responded, “Let me first start by saying that the decision we made today doesn’t have to do with what happened in the Netherlands; it’s completely independent of the DNF that the team caused in the Netherlands for Lando.

“This is a completely separate situation, and we take one race at a time. Today, when we started the pit stop sequencing, we started the sequence by pitting Oscar first, but with a clear intent that we would have not swapped the positions.

“Unfortunately, this was compounded with the fact that we had a slow pit stop, because we had the sequence with Oscar first and then the slow pit stop. We thought that the first thing to do was to go back to the positions that we had before the pit stop.

“I’m sure that Oscar will be very comfortable with this. He was already comfortable during the race. So we show again the values, the principles that we have at McLaren.”

READ MORE: Andrea Stella admits Red Bull rival Max Verstappen’s Monza win showed what McLaren ‘have to learn’

F1 world reacts to McLaren’s use of team orders at the Italian Grand Prix

David Coulthard wasn’t happy with the use of McLaren’s orders at Monza. The former F1 driver felt like the team were manipulating the result of the race, which made him uncomfortable in the commentary box.

Guenther Steiner felt like the orders were ‘unnecessary’ and fears the long-term consequences that they might have on the team. The former Haas team principal admitted that he wouldn’t have dealt with the issue in the same way.

However, Martin Brundle called the move ‘fair’ due to the fact that Norris lost the position through no fault of his own. The team made the mistake, and they also had the power to rectify that mistake by swapping the cars back around.

Max Verstappen found the fact that McLaren swapped the cars back around amusing after his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, broke the news to him over the radio. “Ha, just because he had a slow stop?” Verstappen asked.

Lambiase replied, “It’s not our business, but I guess it keeps it fair between the drivers in terms of the championship.”