Will Norris, Piastri still obey McLaren orders when title at stake?

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have stated they would still obey any McLaren team orders in the potentially title-deciding final races of the 2025 Formula 1 season following their late swap at the Italian Grand Prix.

Norris was on course for second place behind race-winner Max Verstappen at Monza but a slow pit stop put him behind team-mate Piastri, who undercut him.

Piastri was told to let Norris back through and replied on the radio: "We said a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don't really get what's changed here." But he did move over for the British driver, which means his advantage in the Drivers' Championship is 31 points.

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McLaren's racing principles have been tested several times over the last 18 months but they have maintained a culture of the team coming first, which the drivers have so far stuck to.

And asked if they would still swap positions if asked in the closing stages of the season if their title battle remained close, Norris said: "Yes. Because that's what we've agreed as a team."

Piastri simply added: "Yep."

McLaren will seal the Constructors' Championship at the next F1 race in Baku on September 21 - with a record seven races to spare - if they outscore Ferrari by at least nine points and are also not outscored by Mercedes by 12 points or more and Red Bull by 33 points or more.

Norris also said winning the constructors' title would not change anything regarding McLaren's racing principles.

Stella: McLaren to review Monza situation

Verstappen, on his way to a third victory of the season, was told about the McLaren swap by his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase on the team radio and said: "Ha! Just because he had a slow stop?"

The four-time world champion did not want to discuss his comments post-race but his radio could be interpreted in a way that suggest that he would not have been as compliant as Piastri given the circumstances.

Other drivers may feel the same way and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff thinks we will only know towards the end of the season if McLaren have made the right decision.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says there will be a "review" of the principles with the drivers as part of their ongoing "foundation of pursuing excellence".

"If you think that whatever you do is good and you are not going to have an individual or a team review of anything you do, even the things you do perfectly, simply you're not going to progress," he said.

"For me, reviewing doesn't mean like, 'oh, certainly we will have to change it'. Potentially we will review them, and we will further align on them and we will confirm them. So the fact that I use this word doesn't mean that there will be changes.

"The fact that I use this word means that that's how we approach things at McLaren and this review, which is so essential in engineering, in operation, does apply as well in the way you go racing and does apply in the way you go racing with your drivers."

Formula 1 heads to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on September 19-21, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime