Furious McLaren F1 chief to hold Norris and Piastri talks after Italian GP clash

03 September 2023 , 18:35

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Norris and Piastri clashed on track at Monza (Image: HOCH ZWEI/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

Andrea Stella fumed at drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for their "unacceptable" conduct during the Italian Grand Prix.

Norris and Piastri spent much of the Monza race fighting with each other. While much of it was fair, there was one hair-raising moment when the McLaren cars made contact at the Turn 1 chicane.

Piastri was coming out of the pits and met Norris, who had already made his stop, at that corner. The Aussie was on the inside line for the first part of the chicane and that was when his wheel made contact with his team-mate's sidepod.

Neither of them picked up any significant damage, nor were they punished by the stewards. But team principal Stella was left very upset with them both and accused them of putting their own ambitions before the team's goals.

"There should never ever be contact between two McLaren cars", said the Italian after his home race. "There was contact, which doesn't fit the way we go racing at McLaren. What is important is to have clear parameters as to what you deem acceptable and what you deem unacceptable.

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"It's not an emotion thing, it's just like you do with other things. You deal with racing in a similar way. This is very clear that for any driver, there's something bigger than them. It's the team."

Hinting that he will hold talks with both drivers, he added: "I need to review. Like all things, we will do it calmly. There's nothing that we need to do urgently. We will take the adjustments that we need. It's always a little tricky when you leave the pits, especially on hard tyres.

McLaren chief Andrea Stella was left unimpressed with the clash (HOCH ZWEI/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

"It could be that certainly Oscar was trying to see where he could place himself so that he could keep the position. But on colder tyres, this could be slightly more difficult than he might have anticipated. We could absolutely conclude that this is just a little misjudgement.

"Both drivers were aware that there must be no contact between two McLarens and it was just an issue with the execution – we all have issues with execution. If the contact is due to the fact that there was pressure because of the undercut, then we have something to review. Because it means drivers put their team at risk because of affirming themselves. This is not acceptable.

"My role is to give them principles and a clear parameter within which they can race.... In terms of how you stay within the parameter, it's not for us to say because we are not the drivers. It's actually within them to have the skillset to say, 'The tyres are a bit cold, maybe I need to take more margin'. They need to appreciate that there is no way the line should be crossed."

Daniel Moxon