Lando Norris opens up on the rules of engagement with McLaren teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri after contentious team order at Monza

Lando Norris clarified that McLaren has allowed both drivers to race each other freely for the 2025 championship battle, despite the public perception that team orders may influence the fight. Speaking to the media, including Sportskeeda in Baku, the Briton explained that the team had to manage pit stops strategically at the Italian GP to protect their overall position.

At Monza, Norris suffered a slow pitstop that gave his teammate Oscar Piastri the undercut. The pitwall then instructed the pair to swap positions, ultimately leaving the Australian behind his British teammate at the flag. The decision drew criticism from fans and media, who accused McLaren of moderating the title battle and denying spectators a fair on-track fight.

Addressing the debate, Lando Norris insisted that both McLaren drivers were free to race each other hard and fairly in most situations. He pointed to the Monza pitstop scenario as comparable to a similar case in Hungary in 2024. Despite the swap, he felt Piastri still had the advantage to challenge him afterwards. The 25-year-old championship contender stressed that the impression created in the public domain did not accurately reflect the team’s approach.

When asked by Sportskeeda to clarify the rules of engagement between the drivers after the incident in Italy, Lando Norris said:

“I mean, for 99% of things. Of course, how things then look, because of something that happened last weekend, gives everyone a very different opinion or oversight on things. If you make it as simple as, and that's how we've done it, as simple as what happened in Hungary last year was a very similar thing, that the driver in the lead has priority in a pit stop sequence.

"That's exactly what we were entering last weekend. That things don't change. But the fact is, as soon as we just re-established the position, Oscar could race me freely. He still had the advantage of starting basically on my gearbox and trying to race me, so he still gained overall. But otherwise, we've been free every time to race. It's just in one lap of a pit sequence is when the lead driver always has priority, and that's how it's always been and that's how it will continue to be. But otherwise, like we said, we're free to race.”

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Lando Norris is unfazed by the negative headlines and opinions over the McLaren swap

Lando Norris. F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan - Practice - Source: Getty

Lando Norris believed that public consensus did not reflect the reality within McLaren. He admitted that discourse in the public domain, particularly online, is often opinionated and was unsurprised by the reaction to the team’s title battle. The Briton stressed that McLaren did not give much weight to outside noise, choosing instead to remain focused on the task at hand. He also felt no need to entertain negativity from the outside world.

Asked if he was affected by the negative headlines the incident from Italy had created, Lando Norris said:

“Not in the world that we live in nowadays, because that's all people want to do, you know, is be negative and talk badly about others, so honestly, not a surprise. You know, you also need headlines, you also need people to read things, so not a surprise at all from my side, but it also doesn't affect us as a team. Like it's what you expect nowadays, I think, in the world that we live in is more negativity than ever positivity, so, yeah, like we said, we continue to do things are our way, whether people agree with it or not. Not our problem and we don't really care about that.

"So we're happy, we focus on ourselves. Of course, you always want good things to come out of it. The team are trying to do a good thing. Whether people agree in the end of the day is not our problem. So we wanted to be fair, we wanted to be equal for both of us. and then people can comment whatever they like after that.”

McLaren clarified the position swap during the Italian GP, explaining that the decision was made to cover both drivers from Ferrari and other challengers behind. The team maintained that in such scenarios, prioritizing the overall result takes precedence over managing the championship battle directly.

The swap drew attention after being mocked by Max Verstappen over the radio and subsequently became a topic of debate post-race. As it stands, McLaren leads the constructors’ championship by more than 300 points, with Oscar Piastri holding a 31-point lead over Lando Norris in the drivers’ standings, while Verstappen sits third.