Peter Windsor questions Oscar Piastri ‘risk’ on Lando Norris in Italian Grand Prix

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McLaren suffered a disappointing defeat to Ferrari during the Italian Grand Prix when they failed to convert a front-row lockout in qualifying into a one-two.

Lando Norris had a good start off the line and led heading into the Variante chicane, but as they approached the Variante Della Roggia his teammate Oscar Piastri made an attacking lunge around the outside to steal first.

Norris got a bad exit from the chicane and had to concede position to Charles Leclerc, which compromised his strategy as McLaren had to pit him earlier and undercut the Ferrari driver.

READ MORE: Lando Norris explains McLaren’s ‘biggest weakness’ after losing Italian GP from pole

Leclerc adopted a different strategy to both McLaren drivers and went with the one-stop, enabling him to build up a gap at the end of the race to Piastri. Despite chasing him down in the final eight laps, Piastri had to concede to second by 2.6 seconds while Norris finished third.

While speaking on his YouTube livestream, Peter Windsor believes the move pulled off by Piastri at the start impacted McLaren’s chances of winning the race and ultimately led to Ferrari thinking on their feet.

Peter Windsor questions Oscar Piastri’s ‘risky’ move at Italian GP start

Norris had to take avoiding action when Piastri slipped past at the narrow chicane, which enabled Leclerc to get past him and chase his teammate during much of the first stint.

This put pressure on Piastri, while Norris was stuck in the dirty air from Leclerc’s Ferrari which affected his tyre degradation even more.

Windsor felt McLaren should have instructed Piastri to not overtake Norris who currently has a streak of losing the lead after starting from pole.

“What was that all about? What was the risk that Oscar was taking at that stage of the race, with Lando Norris on pole and keeping the lead out of the first corner,” said Windsor.

“You would imagine that McLaren had management control of the drivers, certainly on the opening lap.”

McLaren employ ‘papaya rules’ with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

Both Norris and Piastri were told to stick to ‘papaya rules‘ by their engineers when the possibility of them racing for track position emerged.

Papaya rules refer to the rules of engagement between the pair and were seen in the closing stages of the Hungarian GP, when Norris eventually let Piastri past after pleas from his engineer.

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

Even though Norris took the fastest lap of the race on the final lap, McLaren was denied the chance of overtaking Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship.

They are now within eight points of the Milton Keynes squad but would have been level on points with a one-two victory.

Nico Rosberg says he is worried about Red Bull’s chances, while those within Red Bull have already conceded their Constructors’ title defence is a lost cause.