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McLaren over team orders at the japanese grand prix

Mclaren have headaches: 'Didn't want to lose too much time'

2 October 2023 at 16:01
Last update 2 October 2023 at 16:28
  • Olly Darcy
  • Editor

McLaren has had headaches this season due to team orders. That is what Andrea Stella tells Motorsport.com. The Woking-based team boss had to swap Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in Japan to prevent both drivers from losing time.

The team also swapped the two in Hungary and at Monza. Stella says those moments were not nice as they created stress between the two teammates. They reviewed it and came to the conclusion that they can avoid such things in the future.

Stella on the team order in Japan

About the switch in Japan, Stella says the following: "In this case, the approach was, let's see how fast Lando is closing, and let's see if the overtaking comes naturally. When we saw that, it didn't come so naturally, then we asked the drivers to swap so that we wouldn't lose race time for both."