Stella has clear explanation on why McLaren didn't tell Norris to swap back
F1 News
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has explained why the team decided not to tell Lando Norris to give a place back to Max Verstappen when the Brit overtook off the track during the United States Grand Prix. It proved a costly decision, as the stewards deemed Norris to be at fault, and they punished Norris with a five-second time penalty.
Norris couldn't advance five-seconds up the road, and was classified behind Verstappen. It meant the Dutchman's lead in the World Championship increased to 57 points and it is now a very tall order for Norris with just five Grands Prix and two sprint races remaining.
Why McLaren decided not to tell Norris to give the place back
Immediately after Norris made the move, he asked the team on the radio if he needed to give the place back. The McLaren team looked at the incident in question and told Norris he didn't need to swap back. Stella reports it was a unanimous decision on the pit wall.
"Because at the pit wall and under my responsibility - but there was complete agreement by all the people involved in this interpretation - this situation did not need to be investigated. If anything, we thought the investigation should be for Max pushing Lando off the track. And that's what we thought would happen when we saw that the case was under investigation. So for us, there was no need to give back the position because of the situation," Stella said clearly.
Immediately after the race, Stella was angry with the stewards for making the decision they did. The Italian believed the penalty was "inappropriate".
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