Wolff sees McLaren orders 'setting a precedent': 'Curious to see how that pans out'

23:22, 07 Sep

byKada Sarkozi

Having first-hand experience with teammates battling for the world title, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff shared his thoughts on McLaren's decision to make Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri swap positions.

The McLaren drivers extended their stints on the medium tyres at the Italian Grand Prix, waiting for the race to be neutralized behind Max Verstappen.

According to Toto Wolff, it's a difficult to say whether the Woking-based team made the correct decision or not.

"There is no right and there is no wrong, and I'm curious to see how that pans out. You set a precedent that is very difficult to undo," the Austrian began answering GPblog's question.

"What if the team does another mistake and it's not a pit stop... do you switch them around? But then equally, because of a team mistake, making a driver that is trying to catch up lose the points is not fair either.

"So, I think we are going to get the response of whether that was right today towards the end of the season when it heats up."

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

The Mercedes team principal understands the challenge of navigating through this situation.

"If the team made a mistake, the team inverted the positions, [it's an] absolutely fair decision.

"On the other side, what is a team mistake? What if next time around the car doesn't start up and you lose the position or the suspension breaks? What do you do then in the next round?

"So you could have a cascade of events that's got a precedent, that's got to be very difficult to manage."

"I think the most important is to have a clear strategy. You either go like this, or you go the other way around. Either let them race, or try to balance it in the most possible fair way, bearing in mind that he’ll be back there at the end."

Wolff brought up the example of the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix, where Valtteri Bottas was told to let past Lewis Hamilton, given if the Briton can't overtake the Ferraris in front, he needs to hand back the podium to the Finn.

"We said, we're going to invert if you (Hamilton, ed.) can't manage that (to overtake Kimi Räikkönen). And at the end, Valtteri was 10 seconds behind Lewis, with Verstappen breathing down his neck, and we still inverted him.

"Because that's what we [discussed we will] do before the race. So, you have to try it, whatever path you choose. And it's a luxury problem. They can't lose those championships anymore," he concluded.