F1 News
Stella unphased with Piastri's overtake on Norris: "I welcome it"
The Italian Grand Prix was a missed opportunity for McLaren in many respects. A front-row lockout gave them the best chance to secure maximum points and capitalise on a faltering Red Bull, but they were out-foxed by the one-stop strategy of Ferrari and Charles Leclerc. Lando Norris also missed out on the chance to significantly cut the then 70-point deficit on Max Verstappen. However, his teammate Oscar Piastri was allowed to battle and overtake him on lap 1, almost coming together in the process.
Before the Grand Prix at Monza, Norris had nine races to close the gap between him and Verstappen in the drivers' title. After taking pole, it looked like the Brit would have the perfect opportunity to do so, while Verstappen languished down in P7. However, team orders were not used by team principal Andreas Stella and McLaren, which allowed teammate Piastri to pull a risky move on the first lap, overtaking Norris and not relinquishing his position.
Norris could not respond, losing out on vital points, and during that move, both McLaren drivers almost came together which could have resulted in both papaya-coloured cars crashing out of the race and losing out to Red Bull in the constructors' championship too. However, Stella was seemingly unphased at that possibility and was happy to see his two drivers battle so closely with so much on the line.
Stella 'looks forward' to more of those situations
Speaking to the paddock at Monza, which included GPblog, the Italian team boss was asked about how close his two drivers came on the first lap, to which he answered: "The drivers were close together, but this is because they were close together on the grid. So for me, I welcome, and I look forward to having many more of these situations. What we need to do is to make sure that in these situations, the outcome is the one that works best for the team and for the drivers."