Toto Wolff issues McLaren warning about ‘very difficult precedent to undo’

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has weighed in on the major talking point from the Italian Grand Prix - McLaren’s controversial team order.

McLaren asked Oscar Piastri to swap positions with Lando Norris after a slow pit stop saw the Briton fall behind his teammate in the closing stages of Sunday’s race at Monza.

This came after Norris, who was running second ahead of Piastri before the stops, agreed to allow his teammate to pit first to help secure a 2-3 finish for McLaren behind the dominant Max Verstappen.

Norris stopped a lap later than Piastri but a wheel gun issue meant he dropped behind Piastri, who followed an order to cede position to Norris after initially questioning the decision.

Wolff, no stranger to managing intra team title fights at Mercedes, reckons McLaren’s call has set a precedent that is “very difficult to undo”.

"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 said.

"What if the team does another mistake and it's not a pitstop... 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 our response of whether that was right today towards the end of the season when it heats up.”

How did the McLaren drivers view it?

The result means Norris has cut Piastri’s championship advantage down to 31 points with eight rounds remaining.

Despite sounding some opposition over team radio, Piastri accepted the call was fair.

"It's something we'll discuss for sure. When you're in the same team it's the same pit crew, same mechanics, there's a lot at stake not just for us but the whole team. I think today the decision to swap back was fair," the Australian told Sky Sports F1.

"Lando was ahead of me the whole race so I don't have any issues with that. But we'll definitely discuss it.”

Meanwhile, Norris said: We were still free to race after and he gained from the situation having DRS to fight against me so I still lost out through it.

"The same thing would have happened vice versa. I earned my right to be ahead, to have that fairness. None of us wanted it to happen like this. I don't want to have to let him past or have to get let past, but we have to do what we think is correct as a team. Do things the fair way, that's how we want to do it.

"We don't care what others say or opinions on it, we do it the way we want to, the way we think is correct."