'Impressed' Wheatley shares verdict on McLaren’s debated Italian GP swap

Although fully in the championship fight with Lando Norris and not at fault for the Brit’s slow pit stop at the Italian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri still obeyed the team order from the pit wall, agreeing to give up three valuable points that could prove decisive in such a tight title battle.

From a potential 37-point lead, the Australian now sees his teammate 31 points ahead, after the latter lost 25 points following his retirement at Zandvoort.

After the race ended, speaking with GPblog, Andrea Stella stated that “the pit stop situation is not only a matter of fairness, it's a matter of consistency with our principles.”

The position swap and McLaren’s strict approach sparked debate after the race, with several people—including Max Verstappen—commenting. The Dutchman stated that he wouldn’t have given the position back if he had been in Piastri’s shoes.

Jonathan Wheatley was keen to share his thoughts and told GPblog: ''I don't know because I'm not in that team, but they would have obviously talked about how they were going to go about racing.''

He then went to add: ''They obviously learned a lot of hard lessons last year. I've been very impressed with how they've managed the two drivers fighting the championship this year.''