08/09/2025
NEWS STORY
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."