If Lando Norris goes on to clinch his first world title this year, he should send a cheque with plenty of noughts to Mr Andrea Stella, c/o McLaren, Woking.
That is because his team principal’s even-handed decision-making, bordering on saintliness, allowed Norris to finish runner-up at the Italian Grand Prix, a crucial place ahead of Oscar Piastri.
The choreography – which resulted in Norris being booed by the Tifosi on the podium – meant the British driver narrowed his deficit to his Australian team-mate to 31 points rather than fall 37 in arrears.
Up front, meanwhile, Max Verstappen was imperious. The ‘driver of his age,’ as Damon Hill, a sometime critic of the Dutchman’s gloriously pugnacious style, conferred on the afternoon’s untouchable winner by 19.2sec.
Stella’s crucial call followed the McLaren pair’s late pit stops. Piastri was in on lap 45 of 52, when lying third; Norris was in a lap later, from second. Fine so far.
But Norris’s front left tyre was slow going on and he sat in his pit box waiting and hoping to be released before the sun went down on Monza. The stop was 5.9sec and he reemerged behind Piastri.
Max Verstappen celebrates following his victory in the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday
Despite a late pit stop, Lando Norris finished in second place ahead of Oscar Piastri
McLaren ordered Piastri, who was less than impressed, to cede his place to Norris
It seemed at the time to be a cruel twist in the flesh of Norris’s championship ambitions a week after he retired in Zandvoort with an oil leak. He had sat on a sand dune then cursing his stinking luck.
But, as we know, the switch was made, the instruction conveyed to Piastri by his race engineer Tom Stallard. Piastri hardly hurried to burble ‘wilco’, instead protesting: ‘A slow pit stop is part of racing. I don’t really get what has changed here but I will do it.’
Verstappen was informed what had happened and snorted: ‘Ha, just for a slow pit stop.’
After the chequered flag, Stallard was on to Piastri again, trying to apply balm, saying: ‘I appreciate it was painful, but I think we did the right thing. We can talk about it afterwards.’
One wonders whether Stella would really have issued the order but for the agony of Norris’s engine problem seven days earlier.
Other tricky questions present themselves. What if Norris goes on to take the title by the six-point swing? What if Piastri demands a return favour himself, citing yesterday’s musical chairs? Where, in such cases, is the line drawn?
In fairness to Stella, his so-called Papaya Rules, the first commandment of which is for his drivers not to crash into each other, has kept the lid on potential problems. Equity is his guiding light in a sport where the needs of the team and the individual inevitably chafe.
In different circumstances in Budapest last month, it must be pointed out, Piastri benefitted from Norris being told to hand back first place.
By finishing second Norris narrowed to within 31 points of Piastri at the championship summit
Piastri expessed his frustration as he said: ‘A slow pit stop is part of racing. I don’t really get what has changed here but I will do it.’
So Norris was not fearful that Piastri would not let him by? ‘No,’ he said. ‘Because it is what we decided as a team and we all agreed on.
‘We are not idiots and we have plans for different things. If there were four cars between me and Oscar of course he is not going to let me back past. That would not be correct.
‘Today was not my fault. If I came flat out into my box and I hit all my mechanics out of the way I would not expect to get the position back.
‘I don’t want to win through getting given positions and the same with Oscar. We do what we think is correct as a team no matter what people say, and we will stick with that.
‘The team is No1 and drivers are second.’
Both were asked if they would be willing to trade places if the title were still alive later in the season. They said yes, it is the agreement.
The crowd in the royal park, deprived of a Ferrari victory to salute, were less than impressed by the switcheroo. Norris was perplexed by the booing. ‘I don’t know why,’ he shrugged. ‘I heard them, but I don’t know what I am meant to do. The cheers were louder than the boos.’
The next most dramatic action of an often-moribund race came at the start. Verstappen was cleanly away from his finely sculpted pole position. Norris, second on the grid, was perhaps even brisker off the line. With the track contracting as grass juts out along the start straight beyond the pit lane, Norris’s wheels veered on to the verge. Soil was thrown up into the air.
Norris called Verstappen an ‘idiot’ after cutting the corner in the early stages of the race
Into the first chicane, Rettifilo, the two men contested the lead. Verstappen cut the corner with nowhere to go and returned to the road in first place.
‘What the %^&$!’ exclaimed Norris. ‘What is this idiot doing? Come on! He’s put me in the grass and then he’s cut the corner.’
Verstappen protested innocence over his detour: ‘He’s let the brakes go on purpose.’
He was told to hand the place back and obliged at the start of the second lap. But, wriggling like an eel, Verstappen went outside and then inside at Rettifilo to make the decisive pass on lap four, en route to his first win since Imola in May.
Lewis Hamilton, starting 10th after a five-place grid penalty from a yellow-flag infringement in Holland, finished sixth on his Monza debut in a Ferrari.
As for Verstappen, he was 80 seconds ahead of Red Bull team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, acting as a benchmark of greatness.
