Max Verstappen weighs in on McLaren team order saga after radio remark

Max Verstappen has clarified his view on the McLaren team order saga following the Italian Grand Prix.

It wasn’t a straightforward end for McLaren as they decided to stop Oscar Piastri first for soft tyres.

Piastri ran just over three seconds behind his teammate before entering the pit lane.

McLaren assured Lando Norris there would be no undercut threat from Piastri behind.

However, Norris’ slow stop meant Piastri got ahead.

This forced McLaren to deploy team orders to get Norris back into second, effectively a reverse of Hungary 2024.

When Verstappen was made aware of the situation, he didn’t seem impressed with what McLaren was forced to do.

Over team radio, Verstappen said: “Haha, just because he had a slow stop?”

His race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, replied: “It’s not our business, but I guess it keeps it fair between the drivers in terms of the championship.”

After the race, Verstappen was asked about his radio remark.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Verstappen said: “I’m not going to comment on what they have to do as they run the team how they want to run it, right? Just from my side, I think mistakes happen.

“Sometimes you can have a slow stop, make a mistake as a driver, an engine can blow up or a failure. That’s all part of racing. I know it’s between them anyway in the championship so they decide what they do. They have full right to do what they want. That’s all I want to say about it.”

Red Bull pace “better than expected”

For Verstappen, it was a dream weekend at Monza.

He converted pole into his third F1 victory of the year.

Verstappen admitted that the pace of his Red Bull exceeded his expectations.

“Well I would say the race pace was probably even better than expected,” he added. The balance was just quite nice. I think for most of that first stint we were good, looking good on the tyres.

“I would say at the end of the stint I started to struggle a bit. I think we did the right strategy. We pitted to the hards. I could push flat-out to the end. I understood the strategy of McLaren hoping for a Safety Car but in the end it was quite straightforward so that’s nice sometimes.

“Of course, we’ve been a bit all over the shop but now we’ve finally found a direction that suits the car so I hope that from now onwards it will be a little bit more consistent.”