McLaren make changes after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri involved in F1 clash
Andrea Stella has set "clear parameters" for his McLaren drivers after being left furious by contact between them at the Italian Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri was coming out of the pit lane during the race and met team-mate Lando Norris at the first corner. They went into it side-by-side, but banged wheels as they did so.
Norris brushed off the incident, acknowledging that his team-mate was on hard and cold tyres and so was struggling for grip. But his boss was less understanding about it.
Stella said he would be speaking to both of them over concerns they might have put their own personal ambitions above the good of the team. "There should never ever be contact between two McLaren cars", said the Italian after the Monza 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. 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.
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" 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 clear parameters 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."
Fortunately for McLaren, neither of their drivers picked up any damage in the collision. Norris went on to finish eighth while Piastri was also on for points, until a separate incident with Lewis Hamilton did damage his front wing and forced him to pit and tumble down the order.
Speaking about their coming-together, Norris insisted it would not affect his relationship with Piastri. He said: "I guess he was just on cold tyres, and had a little bit of understeer. I tried to leave enough of a gap. It's very difficult to see in the mirror. I left a good gap.
"But just hard and cold tyres – it’s not a nice combination. I guess he just ran into my rear tyre. No, [it was not ideal], but I think we respect each other, we give each other space, and fortunately nothing happened, so it's all okay."
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