McLaren have launched an investigation after Oscar Piastri overtook team-mate Lando Norris on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix with a move that has been labelled “aggressive”.
The drivers both started the race from the front row after impressive displays in qualifying, but missed out on victory to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Norris led from pole position on the first few turns but was soon passed by Piastri during an enthralling opening lap.
And the manoeuvre from the Australian cost Norris valuable momentum, as Leclerc found space to dash into second.
Leclerc made the most of a one-stop strategy to claim the lead from Piastri with 15 laps to go. And the long-time race leader was ultimately forced to settle for second place, with Norris finishing third.
After the race, McLaren chief executive Zak Brown revealed that his team have ‘papaya rules’ in place to allow their drivers to fight hard but cleanly and without any contact.
And McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained in a separate interview: “We will have to review together with the drivers, look at the videos, 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 that we need to take. And then we will adjust the Papaya Rules such that they allow us to pursue in the best possible manner both the Constructors’ Championship and the Drivers’ Championship.”
The result leaves McLaren just eight points behind leaders Red Bull in the team standings, with Norris reducing his deficit to 62 points on individual leader Max Verstappen. And Stella continued: “We have to be now in condition to acknowledge that not only the Constructors’ Championship is possible.
“Even from a driver’s point of view, with the performance we have at the moment in the car, and some of the struggles that we see with Red Bull, it is definitely possible. So if we can achieve both as a team, we need to put the team in condition and Lando in condition to pursue both Championships.”
Stella also touched upon McLaren’s decision to abandon a one-stop strategy in Italy as he added: “I think our car traditionally tends to be very good on the rear tyres but, when we deal with front graining, we tend to be on the aggressive side.
“This made us a bit nervous – especially after Lando had a lock-up on the front left a couple of laps before. For us, normally, this would have been the symptom the tyres were starting to struggle.
“In hindsight, I think there wasn’t enough degradation for Leclerc to actually go and beat him on a two-stop, because we missed it by a couple of laps, but a couple of laps is a lot. So it remains a question mark whether we could have won the race or not. But it looks like there was potentially more in the tyres than what we might have anticipated.”