Zak Brown ‘doesn’t have’ a plan to solve McLaren problem Lando Norris has been warned about

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McLaren caused controversy at the end of the Italian Grand Prix when they asked Oscar Piastri to move aside for Lando Norris.

Norris was on course to finish second behind Max Verstappen, but a slow pit stop put him behind teammate Oscar Piastri, who undercut him after the team instructed the Australian to pit first.

McLaren wanted to cover off Charles Leclerc, who pitted first out of the leaders, but Norris had a slow pit stop that forced him to emerge behind Piastri.

The team rectified the situation by instigating a swap, which Piastri obliged despite giving them some pushback over team radio: “We said a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here.”

The switch cost Piastri three points in the championship battle with Norris, while McLaren said they would review the strategy. Discussing what happened on his YouTube live stream, Peter Windsor questioned whether McLaren’s Zak Brown has a plan to handle future scenarios when the title battle gets tighter.

Peter Windsor questions whether Zak Brown has a plan to solve future McLaren problem

McLaren has previously asked their drivers to give up positions to their teammates, notably at the Hungarian GP last year, when Norris was told to move aside for Piastri despite being in a title battle with Verstappen.

Norris was also handed a Sprint race victory in Brazil last year, although he repaid Piastri with a win in Qatar. Although they have maintained fairness at McLaren, Windsor has questioned what Brown plans to do when one driver loses in the title race.

“The days of Oscar giving positions away to Lando, you can’t expect Oscar or Lando to keep doing that as the championship battle tightens,” said Windsor.

“You’ve got to win at all costs in F1. McLaren are already preparing one of them or both of them, for not winning the championship and how they’re going to handle it. Which is pathetic, if you’ve got two racing drivers who are very high quality and are going to be head-to-head, you can’t start saying that to them.

“It’s going to be bad for one of them for whoever loses. All this glad and happy stuff will eventually come crashing down. What is Zak’s (Brown) plan for handling it all? He doesn’t have one quite clearly.”

F1 paddock divided on McLaren team orders decision

Jolyon Palmer believes McLaren has opened up a ‘can of worms’ because of the circumstances of their team orders in Monza, as there are a lot of other scenarios that could happen that require similar intervention.

David Coulthard accused McLaren of ‘manipulating’ the race result, and that the three points could prove costly for Piastri in the long run.

Martin Brundle felt the decision was ‘fair’ because both drivers played the team game, especially as Piastri was allowed to race and was brought closer to Norris than he would’ve been if the slow pit stop hadn’t happened.

Former F1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr believes Piastri now has a ‘card to play’ in the final races by playing the team game.