McLaren braced for flashpoint as is ‘within the rights of the driver’

Appreciating the sportsmanship at McLaren during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, Andrea Stella accepts there could come a time when all that stops as the championship goes down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.

Engaged in an intra-team battle for the Drivers’ Championship, Oscar Piastri leads Lando Norris by 34 points with nine races remaining in what is shaping up to arguably one of the most respectful and sporting title fights in recent history.

McLaren: It’s within the rights of the driver…

That was on display at Monza on Saturday as Piastri and Norris raced for a spot in the pole position shootout.

Piastri was asked by his race engineer Tom Stallard to give Norris a helping hand as the Briton was in the elimination zone after a mistake on an earlier lap.

“If you can help Lando, if you can tow Lando up to Turn 4, but just make sure we don’t impede – gap three,” Stallard requested.

Piastri gave his teammate the tow with both drivers into Q3 where Norris got the better of the championship leader to line up second on the Monza grid, with Piastri third. Max Verstappen put in a record-breaking lap to beat the McLarens to pole position.

It was the latest moment of fair play between the McLaren teammates, but team principal Stella is under no illusion that it will last through to the season’s chequered flag, given there’s a Drivers’ Championship at stake.

McLaren teammates: F1 2025 head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“Well, it’s an interesting question,” he told PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher, and other media outlets. “For some reason, as soon as Tom asked Oscar, I knew Oscar was going to do it.

“I think that’s the quality of the drivers we have and the individuals behind the drivers that we have at McLaren, it’s the foundation of the way we go racing.

“If it’s the last race in Abu Dhabi, will we see the same? I can’t say.

“But at the moment I’m just very proud that these things happen, that Lando and Oscar go racing like they do.

“That’s the way the McLaren people, the team, want their drivers to go racing, and I’m sure this also is how the fans want us to go racing.

“Having said that, the tow that Oscar gave Lando, it wasn’t a decisive factor for Lando to go to Q3, he had enough performance in end, and he completed the final lap in Q3, but in itself it’s a nice gesture of fairness and sportsmanship that we do like to see.”

Asked if he would accept if that sportsmanship stopped now, Stella replied: “It’s within the rights of the driver that may consider the slipstream to say I’m not going to do it this time.

“I would consider it potentially not the most elegant move, but sometimes racing doesn’t necessarily require elegance as long as you operate within the principles and the rules of the team.”

The teammates will line up on the Monza grid on Sunday with one initial goal in mind, beat Verstappen to the victory.

“Sunday is normally our strength,” said Norris. “But, yeah, to get past Max, I’m sure it’s going to be a big challenge. But we’ll wait and see.

“Their pace was also very strong. If you see the end of the stint, they’re doing the same lap times as us. So I don’t expect any magical things.

“And we have some Ferraris behind who I’m sure are going to want to come through as quickly as possible. It’s a long race. Many things can happen, and we’ll see what we can do.

As for Piastri, he’s “reasonably confident” that McLaren have the race pace to challenge for the victory at the Italian Grand Prix.

“It is generally a strength of ours, but it didn’t look night and day above everyone else yesterday,” he said. “So let’s wait and see.

“It’s a track where slipstreams make a big difference. The start can be pretty chaotic. So I think there’s going to be a few factors at play apart from just pure pace.”

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