Stella: Why McLaren denied Piastri's request for team orders

Ladno Norris went for a gap into Turn 1 following a stellar start that saw him leapfrog Antonelli and go up alongisde Piastri resulted in a double collision for the Briton, who first made contact with Max Verstappen on the entry into Turn 3, which veered his car into Piastri's causing the second collision.

Piastri soon after got on the radio to the pitwall to urge them to swap the cars around in what he judged to be an incorrect manoeuvre from his teammate. A request that, however, was denied by the team's higher ups, which left Piastri fuming.

After the race, Stella explained the team's decision: “The first-lap situation is one of those things that can happen with such close racing. We will review the situation together with our drivers, and we’ll have good conversations like we did after Canada.” 

He continued: “That review allowed us to come back, as we said at the time, even more united and stronger as a team. We’ll see if there’s any learning or anything we need to fine-tune in terms of our approach; this will just lead to some good conversations,” concluded the Italian.

Stella also detailed how the contact between Norris and Piastri was largely a product of an incident involving Max Verstappen as well. The McLaren chief again reiterated that the team would review the incident.

He said:“In terms of the contact between our two drivers, this incident was a consequence of another racing situation that happened between Lando and [Max] Verstappen. Because there was contact, this will, as I said before, lead to a review and some good conversations.

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