Azerbaijan GP: Will there be more chapters of the controversial McLaren rules?

The Woking team has its two pilots, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, in the fight for the crown and arrive in Baku after a controversial decision in Italy. “Everything is exactly as I was,” said English.

The controversial determination of McLaren in the final bars of the GP of Italy continues to generate remesing around the team. In Monza, Lando Norris lived a slow stop in boxes and, as a result, he lost his track with Oscar Piastri, his teammate and rival in the fight for the Crown 2025. With Max Verstappen escaped at the tip with his Red Bull, the Australian inherited second position until a radio order arrived: he had to let English pass.

The decision generated from the hilarious laugh of Verstappen when the team told him the situation, even countless questions in the press session through which Team pupils founded by Bruce McLaren had to pass. Andrea Stella, team director, defended the determination: “Unfortunately there was a problem and a stop was very slow. And we decided to return to the positions they had before the start of the arrests. I am sure that Oscar will be very satisfied with this. We show the valuable principles of McLaren,” he said in Pope in Monza.

After Italy, Piastri leads the World Cup with 31 points of difference over Norris. Thus the two pilots arrived in Azerbaijan, where this weekend the 17th date of exercise 2025 will be played. And, how could it be otherwise, the questions revolved around the famous and controversial papaya rules. Norris was consulted if there was an internal talk after Monzagate. “Some things had to be clarified. Everything is exactly as I was,” he said.

Norris exposed himself in the explanation: “There were some things at that time that I did not know, such as the Undercut of Leclerc, which were things that I did not know in my interviews after the race. That also played a role in the reasoning for the decision that the team made, it was not only a stop in boxes led him to that decisionThey were more the other things. I want to clarify that we both agreed with it later and we accepted that this is what we agreed as a team. It was not the fact that he had a slow boxes that motivated him. It was rather the change of positions, ”he closed.

In the other corner, Piastri also maintained verticality in his sayings. The Australian said that some issues had been clarified with McLaren after Monza: “Obviously it was a very commented moment, but we have had many conversations, clarified many things and we know how we are going to compete from now on, which is the most important thing. What happened, is done, and I am excited to run here, ”said the World Cup leader, trying to bury the subject.

Of course, the Piastri naif side changed when asked if he had given the place in case of being the first and not the second: “I don’t know, it wasn’t in that case. Would I have done it a little more difficult? Probably yes, but I don’t know if the result would have been different. But I didn’t plan to find myself in that situation.”

The McLaren popes try to maintain the internal duel within an extreme cordiality, but in full definition of a formula 1 World Cup 1 all that hangs from a thin thread. We will have to see who first kicks the board, if Norris or Piastri. For the demonstrated personality, it is likely to arrive from the Australian. Will there be more papaya rules in Baku? Meanwhile, McLaren prepares to celebrate his tenth builders title in Azerbiayán. It arrives with 337 advantage points over Ferrari and if it stretches in nine units the difference, it will celebrate the crown and will remain as the only escort of Ferrari (16) and will surpass Williams.