The spotlight on McLaren’s weekend at Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix has been honed on the side’s reluctance to impose team orders, but Lando Norris’ latest slip-up has demonstrated why its indecision has been vindicated.
Norris headed into the most recent round aiming to build upon a commanding showing at Zandvoort, where he imposed a devastating 22-second loss on championship leader Max Verstappen to make his title prospects seem more realistic.
The Briton had been candid about requiring a “reset” over the summer break, and an emphatic success on his main rival’s home ground provided the ideal tonic as he endeavours to overcome a huge points gap.
But while he managed to eradicate Verstappen’s points lead again at Monza, Norris was made to rue another squandered chance to take a race win this season as he dropped from pole position to third place.
However, it was the manner in which Norris lost this particular victory that divided opinion as it was his team-mate making a robust move that led to his race unravelling.
McLaren’s status as the benchmark team with an upgraded MCL38 car was underlined on Italian soil as Norris headed Oscar Piastri in a front-row lock-out on a track which hasn’t suited the team’s machines since the 2022 return to ground effect aerodynamics.
It was inevitable that Norris was dealt with questions surrounding his wretched start record, but the McLaren driver was quick to alleviate concerns going into the race, as boss Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown both insisted that a solution had been installed.
With Monza boasting the second longest run down to the first corner on the calendar, Norris executing a strong start and thus maintaining first was more vital than ever.
With Verstappen down in seventh on the grid in a Red Bull car with an inherent balance issue, the pressure on Norris to banish his first-lap demons was heightened even more.
McLaren’s collective optimism would not be misplaced, though, as Norris aced the launch to remain unopposed approaching Turn 1, while Piastri covered George Russell, who got his braking wrong and cut the chicane, promoting Charles Leclerc up to third spot.
But although Norris was poised to have clear track ahead and the chance to manage the pace as he desired, he was caught napping at the second chicane when Piastri moved to the outside and squeezed his car into first.
Norris being compromised allowed an opportunistic Leclerc to anticipate his rival being late back onto the throttle out of Turn 5 to cut underneath and gain the inside line going into the first Lesmo to secure second.
That would prove decisive to the race outcome as Ferrari getting amongst the McLarens prevented the latter from being able to control proceedings at its own pace.
Indeed, McLaren elected to trigger an undercut on Lap 14 which got Norris track position over Leclerc – but that would prove to be the moment that set Ferrari on course to beat Piastri and Norris with one less stop.
Ferrari’s inspired strategic thinking on the pit wall and Leclerc’s masterclass to manage his rubber through the graining that was prevalent throughout the weekend delivered the Italian marque success on home soil once again and reinvigorated its own title chances that dissipated earlier this season.
As a beaming Leclerc walked out onto the podium that overlooks the main straight with the delirious Tifosi chanting his name, the two McLaren drivers were made to ponder what could have been in the latest Italian GP.
Despite having outclassed his team-mate to be the lead McLaren home, Piastri was not able to add to his maiden F1 win in Hungary, while Norris rued being “too cautious” in wheel-to-wheel combat on the opening lap.
However, Norris did let his mask slip when he conceded Piastri’s pass was “too close for comfort”, which Stella appeared to have concurred with as he revealed a review would be held to decipher whether it adhered to the rules of engagement – dubbed ‘Papaya rules’ – that the team have for racing situations.
“We will have to review together with the drivers, with the videos,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“Understand their point of view and then we will assess together whether they were fully compliant or not. We will take the learning, if there is any learning they need to take, and then we will apply the papaya rules such that they allow us to pursue in the best possible manner both the Constructors’ Championship and the Drivers’ Championship, because we have to now be in the condition to acknowledge that not only the Constructors’ Championship is possible but even from the driver’s point of view, with the performance that we have in the car and some of the struggle we see with Red Bull, it is definitely possible.”
“So if we can achieve both as a team we need to, if we are going to achieve both, we need to put the team in condition and Lando in condition to win both championships.”
Brown, though, provided more clarification later on during a television interview where he addressed that Piastri was in the clear.
Asked whether McLaren should have swapped the two cars, Brown retorted: “No. Lando ran along there, we had some discussion about what we wanted to do there.
“At the end of the day, the papaya rules are race each other, hard but fair, and don’t touch each other. And that’s what they did. We’ll take it one race at a time.”
Even without the American’s intervention, Piastri didn’t deserve the slightest criticism.
The Australian saw an opening to attain the lead in an F1 race and he made it stick with an audacious move that should go down as an overtake of the season contender.
McLaren has not told Piastri that he can’t attack Norris, meaning he has the same right to challenge as his team-mate as long as he does so in a manner which is clean. The onus is on the team to intervene should it want to prioritise Norris, but continuous errors stalling his momentum are adding to McLaren’s conundrum over such a decision.
Norris heads each metric at McLaren this season, but he hasn’t quite done enough to demote the ex-Alpine protege into a position where it makes him being ushered into a supporting role an automatic no-brainer.
Piastri has come home as the lead McLaren in three of the last four races, scooping one win and two second places during that time. The Australian was the highest points scorer across the European stretch, and the gap between him and Norris (44) is lower than the margin the latter trails Verstappen (62).
Now, while Piastri continues to improve his race management, the swing in the intra-team battle at McLaren hasn’t derived from him reaching a level that Norris can’t match.
Norris has continued to have the slight upper hand as he began those races ahead on the grid, but he is making minor mistakes that his team-mate is pouncing on to punish.
Norris’ opening lap shortcomings have cost him probable victories in Spain, Hungary and now Italy. Had he converted those chances, his respective gaps to Verstappen and Piastri would place his season in a rosier light and might have rewarded him with the team orders that he has admitted that he would welcome but won’t “beg” to get.
There are grounds to suggest that Monza was Norris’ worst blunder to date as he had completed the hard work, but having to correct a small oversteer moment exiting Turn 2 hindered his momentum through the Curva Grande and gave Piastri the impetus and the window he needed to make a lunge.
Those fine margins are where Norris is losing out, and Piastri’s raw speed is close enough to his team-mate’s to then be in the position to capitalise time and time again.
The Melbourne-born driver is growing in confidence with each passing round and he has maximised more chances than Norris, who is still to prove he can win races that he ought to, let alone the 50/50 contests that have helped Verstappen to open up such a considerable lead since Red Bull’s competitiveness began to wane post-Miami.
McLaren harbours no doubts that Norris is a champion in waiting and he has proven that he has the attributes to realise that dream. However, he has come up short too often to make it clear cut that he can overcome the largest points deficit that F1 would’ve seen.
That is something that McLaren will be contemplating as it considers whether it is worthwhile upsetting the progression that has seen Piastri close a 42-point gap from the opening eight rounds (113-71) down to two points in the most recent eight events (128-126) in the ongoing 2024 F1 season.
McLaren’s approach has indicated that backing one driver over the other is a last resort that it hopes it won’t have to make.
Stella has ruled out Norris being given number one status as he contends that it isn’t a conducive method to operate a team, but he has acknowledged that stopping battles between his two drivers to avoid squandering points could be implemented.
“Already in our conversation before the race here we acknowledged the Lando is in the best position from a Drivers’ Championship point of view,” Stella said.
“We have conversations with Oscar, we have conversations with Lando and we have conversations together, and that defines our rules of engagement.
“We need to take a look at the first lap, but it has to be done in a way that is competent, detailed, specific, takes into account the videos, what was the drivers’ expectations and then see what we can learn from this situation to adjust future situations, save the fact that we do want to give it a go at the championship with Lando.”
One thing weighing in Norris’ favour is that Red Bull’s woes have reached such a low that Verstappen’s position is precarious.
Whereas he was still able to produce podium results in the RB20 up until Zandvoort, Monza exposed that the Dutchman is vulnerable to big point swings and he has even come out and addressed that repeat showings will make retaining his Drivers’ Championship an unrealistic achievement.
Norris delivering more Zandvoort-level showings and Verstappen being mired in the single-digit points region on a consistent basis would see the gap diminish in no time.
At that stage, McLaren electing to sacrifice Piastri to aid Norris would seem reasonable. But attributing that call not being taken at Monza to Norris losing the win would detract from the fact that he had it in his own hands.
Norris has driven a superb campaign when the expectations have been less intense, but he must do better in those high-pressure situations to ensure that he copes with the rising threat on the opposite side of the garage heading into a 2025 season where the scores will be reset and McLaren looks primed to be the team the rest have to beat.
