Toto Wolff issues McLaren warning after Italian GP: ‘McLaren set a precedent that is very difficult to undo’
Max Verstappen won the 2025 Italian GP, but it wasn’t his return to the top spot that stole the spotlight.
Rather, it was McLaren’s infamous ‘Papaya rules’, controversially coming into play, that made the headlines.
McLaren’s pit stop dilemma
The race in Monza was a one-stop strategy, and McLaren gave Lando Norris the choice of whether to pit before or after Oscar Piastri. Norris chose to pit after his team-mate.
Piastri’s stop was clean. Norris’ was anything but, with a front-left wheel tyre problem slowing him to 5.9 seconds.
The delay cost him track position to Piastri, and McLaren then gave team orders for Piastri to let Norris back through into second.
Piastri questioned the decision but didn’t put up a fight.
"I mean, we said a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don't really get what's changed here. But if you really want me to do it, then I'll do it," Piastri said on team radio.
The call caused plenty of debate. Piastri is leading the championship. The slow stop was not his fault. Usually, the car ahead gets pit priority, and there was no proof Norris was the one to challenge Verstappen anyway.
McLaren stood by their choice.
"I think that the pitstop situation is not only a matter of fairness, it's a matter of consistency with our principles," McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said to the media post-race.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Strategy, pressure and presentation: Bernadette Collins reflects on her ground-breaking F1 journey
Wolff issues warning
But others disagreed. Even Verstappen questioned it, and among those in disagreement was Toto Wolff, who knows a thing or two about managing team-mates vying for F1 titles.
“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," Wolff addressed the media.
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."
Maybe McLaren need to take a page or two from how Mercedes handled the fierce battles between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
READ NEXT: Chelsea Women open season against Man City as they aim to win seventh WSL title in a row
