Lando Norris feels his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri “got way too close for comfort” on his lap-one pass at Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix.
Norris started from pole ahead of Piastri but while defending his lead into the first chicane, the Briton’s compromised exit out of the corner left him vulnerable to Piastri on the run towards the second chicane.
The Australian pulled off an audacious move around the outside to grab the lead, with Norris taking evasive action to prevent tagging his team-mate’s left-rear corner.
While Piastri’s hair-raising pass was executed to perfection, team boss Andrea Stella had clarified on Saturday that the McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ mean drivers have to take more care racing each other than they would with rival teams.
After the race Stella said the team would review with its drivers whether that was the case on lap one, but speaking to Sky Sports F1 Norris expressed his unease at just how close to disaster he and Piastri had come.
“There was a big gap behind and between us two cars, there’s no risk. I feel like he got way too close for comfort,” Norris said. “We both easily could have been out in that corner if I break one metre later.
“Obviously, if I could rewind, I’d do stuff slightly differently. But it is what it is, Oscar drove a good race and so did Charles [Leclerc, who won the race for Ferrari].”
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38 battles with Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Norris didn’t fault Piastri for the pass itself, but feels he could have done things differently himself, especially because his defensive actions got him out of shape at the exit and allowed Leclerc to sail past into second.
When asked in the press conference to expand on McLaren’s rules of engagement and on what he could have done differently, Norris said: “Just don’t crash, that’s all. There was no contact, so he did a good job.
“[I could] just brake a bit later, but sometimes it’s easier said than done.
“Oscar obviously braked on the limit and gave me space. It was just about enough. I did my best to avoid anything else happening. But at the same time – you don’t know and you can’t predict – but if I had braked two metres later it could easily have been a crash.
“So, it’s a tough one. The easiest thing is just to brake way later and force him off and kind of treat it like anyone else. Obviously, I took it easy. I saw we had a massive gap behind, so maybe I was just a bit too much on the cautious side and paid the price.”
Piastri saw no bones in his pass, saying: “I braked later and got around the outside. There wasn’t really much more to it than that. We both got through unscathed.
“Once I hit the brakes, I got ahead a bit and I knew I was kind of entitled to stay on the outside.
“Ultimately, for 38 laps of that race, it put me in a race-winning position. So for me it was just a good first lap.”
At the end both McLarens were beaten by Leclerc’s ambitious one-stop strategy, with Piastri and Norris flanking the Ferrari man on the podium in second and third respectively.
Norris clawed back crucial points to sixth-placed Max Verstappen, bringing down his deficit to 62 points with eight grands prix left to run.
