Toto Wolff believes that McLaren's controversial decision at Monza sets a worrying precedent.

While the team argues that Norris lost his position through no fault of his own - a decision that has not gone down well on social media - the Mercedes boss argues that swapping its drivers around could come back to haunt McLaren.

"There is no right and there is no wrong," said the Austrian, "and I'm curious to see how that pans out.

"You set a precedent that is very difficult to undo," he added. "What if the team does another mistake and it's not a pit-stop, do you switch them around?

"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."

"They would have obviously talked about how they were going to go about racing, and I guess they had a conversation that if there was a team error they'd swapped positions," added Sauber boss, Jonathan Wheatley.

"They obviously learned a lot of hard lessons last year," he continued. "I've been very impressed with how they managed the two drivers fighting in the championship this year, and I think they were ahead of it. They weren't having a discussion in the race, so it's clearly something they talked about before."

When Gianpiero Lambiase informed Max Verstappen what was unfolding behind him in the closing stages of the race, the Dutchman laughed.

"Ha! Just because he had a slow stop?" he said.

Asked his thoughts at the post-race press conference, the four-time world champion said: "I know that you guys want a fun answer on that, but it's not my problem. It's better not to talk about it."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Monza here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 12/09/2025 2:52

"@ Dejan.... I don't think that Bottas wouldn't necessarily agree with your observation...."

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2. Posted by dejan, 11/09/2025 19:22

"What Mercedes was doing is only comparable when both drivers were in contention - and they played quite fair but without team orders to fix the outcome.

Bottas was never close to being able to contend and neither was Russell"

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3. Posted by kenji, 10/09/2025 6:55

"It is quite obvious here that Wheatley has got it wrong. The evidence [Piastri's initial verbal comments ] suggests that costly pitstop team errors were agreed to be deemed racing incidents and subsequent race rigging was not on offer. Oscar is being played here and it's not pretty. The Norris gift could make all the difference at years end. "

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4. Posted by ffracer, 09/09/2025 22:39

"Right Toto. What you did to Valtteri Bottas during his tenure there as a No 2 was pitiful... or what you did to George Russell during his maiden race, on what could have been his first F1 win... only to get called back to the pits for another urgent pitstop was almost comical. But, I guess you had to appease Lewis.

On the positive note, at least these teams are not stooping to Williams dangerous levels of
botching a pitstop with another errant rear wheel to control your driver bias. "

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Wolff questions McLaren's decision

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