David Coulthard delivers ‘manipulated’ verdict after McLaren’s Monza team orders

David Coulthard says he cannot help but feel McLaren “manipulated the result” of the Italian Grand Prix when they ordered Oscar Piastri to move over for Lando Norris.

Norris and Piastri were running second and third at the Monza circuit on a Sunday in which McLaren had no answer to Max Verstappen’s pace as the Red Bull driver stormed to his third grand prix win of the season.

David Coulthard ‘uncomfortable’ with McLaren’s ‘manipulating’

McLaren opted to pit late, Piastri in on Lap 46 of the 53-lap race after being cleared by Norris to pit first following his race engineer Will Joseph’s insistence that “there will be no undercut”.

Piastri made a 1.9-second pit stop with Norris in a lap later, but an issue with the wheel nut on his front tyre meant he was stationary for four seconds. As a result, he rejoined the action behind Piastri.

The Australian driver was told to cede the position to Norris, Tom Stallard saying: “We pitted in this order for team reasons. Please let Lando past and then you are free to race.”

Piastri briefly pleaded his case, replying: “I mean, we said that a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here.”

“But,” he added, “if you really want to do it, then I’ll do it.”

Moving over for Norris, Piastri briefly hung onto his teammate’s rear wing before dropping out of DRS range and crossing the line 2.1s down.

More on McLaren’s use of team orders at Monza

👉 McLaren threw ‘papaya rules’ to the wind in Italian Grand Prix team orders call

👉 What Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri said about the race-defining team order at Italian GP

The result meant Piastri’s lead in the Drivers’ standings was reduced to 31 points ahead of his British teammate.

But while Coulthard acknowledges that winning the Constructors’ Championship is McLaren’s priority, irrespective of which teammate takes the Drivers’ crown, he feels the team should’ve let it play out on track, after all, a botched pit stop is part of racing.

“So you can see the wheel gun went on. The wheel gun came off. They weren’t sure,” the former McLaren driver explained to Channel 4. “It went back on again. And they get a sequence of lights to tell them that everything has been seated properly.

“There was just a hesitation, a rare mistake, given that you just highlighted the brilliant stop they did for Oscar.

“This is just racing.

“They obviously felt that the race was neutralised with Lando having the advantage coming into the pit stop.

“They feel that he’s been disadvantaged because of the team, not because of something that Oscar has done on track, and then they’ve asked him to make the switch.

“On one hand, I get it, because they’ve been playing that card since last year. They focus on trying to win the Constructors’ Championship.

“Inside the racer and inside the little boy that grew up a fan of the sport, I want to see racing wheel-to-wheel. And yes, sometimes engines will blow up. Yes, sometimes you’ll get involved in an incident.

“This just feels a little bit manipulating, manipulating the result, and that feels uncomfortable, I have to say.”

He, however, acknowledged that McLaren was well within its rights to issue team orders to the drivers.

“It’s within the rules, and it’s McLaren’s right,” added the Scot.

“And look, they’re going to win the Constructors’ and the Drivers’ Championship this year, but this just feels like it should be left for them to go about it.”

Read next: McLaren warned of ‘very difficult precedent to undo’ by Toto Wolff