Damon Hill lands ‘give it back’ quip after McLaren’s Italian GP team orders

Damon Hill has quipped that he’s worried Renault will ask him to give his 1993 Italian Grand Prix win to Alain Prost after his Williams teammate’s engine failure handed Hill victory.

His comment was in reaction to McLaren’s use of team orders at Monza on Sunday.

Damon Hill lands 1993 Italian GP dig after McLaren team orders

McLaren courted controversy at the Italian Grand Prix when the team ordered Oscar Piastri to give second place to Lando Norris to re-establish their running order prior to the Briton’s slow pit stop.

Norris had been running second behind Max Verstappen when McLaren finally pitted late in the race, with Piastri the first to stop after Norris’ race engineer Will Joseph was made it clear to the Briton that he would not be undercut.

Joseph: “Lando we will box this lap onto the soft tyre.”
Norris: “Did you want to box the other car first?”
Joseph: “Yep, we’ll do that. We’ll swap it around, so stay out.”
Norris: “Well, only if he doesn’t undercut, otherwise I’ll box first.”
Joseph: “There will be no undercut.”

Unfortunately for McLaren it didn’t work out that way as while Piastri made a 1.9s pit stop, Norris was stationary for 5.9s due to a wheel nut issue on his front left tyre. He rejoined the action behind Piastri.

The championship leader was told by his race engineer Tom Stallard to give the position back to Norris.

Stallard: “We pitted in this order for team reasons. Please let Lando past and then you are free to race.”
Piastri: “I mean, we said that a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here.”

The Aussie did so, with McLaren team principal Andrea Stella telling PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other media outlets at Monza that it was “not only a matter of fairness, it’s a matter of consistency with our principles.”

But not everyone agrees that it was the right thing to do, with Hill recalling his 1993 Italian Grand Prix win.

In a race of attrition, Hill moved up to second at Monza when Michael Schumacher’s engine failed, and 26 laps later he was leading when his Williams teammate Alain Prost’s Renault engine also failed.

Hill, who clinched his third win of the season, jokingly said on social media that he’s worried that he’ll have to give that win back to the Frenchman.

“In 1993 I won the Italian GP (in part 😉) because Alain Prost’s Renault engine blew up,” Hill wrote.

“I’m now worried Renault will ask me to give the result back to him! 😬

“What do you make of McLaren’s policy of instructing a driver to sacrifice a guaranteed result in favour of his rival?”

Running a poll in his post, 61.8 per cent of Hill’s followers were ‘not happy’ with McLaren’s actions, while 17.8 per cent were ‘happy enough’ and 20.4 per cent were sitting on the fence.

McLaren stands by ‘principles and racing values’

However, jokes and digs aside, for McLaren it was a case of principle.

While Hill wasn’t the only one joking on social media about McLaren’s fairness, several posts pondering whether Piastri would have to crash if Norris did or if he would be sent out in Baku with faulty engine to make up for Norris’ Zandvoort retirement, Stella explained Sunday’s decision was about more than just a slow pit stop, it was McLaren’s racing ethos.

At Monza, that ethos was assuring Norris that by giving Piastri the go-ahead to stop first, he would not be undercut – the manner in which it could happen being irrelevant.

“However the championship goes, what’s important is that the championship runs within the principles and the racing values that we have at McLaren, and that we have created together with our drivers,” insisted the Italian.

“The situation whereby we swapped the drivers is not only related to the pit stop, and this is pretty useful that I clarified, it’s also related to the fact that we wanted to sequence the pit stop of the two cars by stopping Oscar first and then Lando – and we had the clear intent that these should have not led to a swap of position.

“It was just done because we were covering Leclerc, and at the same time, we were waiting until the last possible moment to see if there had been a red flag or a safety car.

“So we pursued the team interest, and to capitalise as much as possible on this interest, we needed to go first with Oscar, then with Lando. But, clear intent was, this is not going to deliver a swap of positions.

“So the fact that we went first with Oscar, compounded by the slow pit stop of Lando, then led to a swap of positions, and we thought it was absolutely the right thing to go back to the situation, pre-existing at the pit stop, and then let the guys race.

“This is what we did, and this is what we think is in compliance with our principles.

“We will review the case. We will review also the situation whereby it was a slow pit stop in isolation.

“We already have our principles in relation to that. We will review our principles in relation to that and reinforce the direction, if this is in agreement with our drivers.”

With Norris second and Piastri third at Monza, the latter’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship was reduced by three points to 31 with eight races remaining.

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