“If you can help Lando, if you can tow Lando up to Turn 4, but just make sure we don’t impede – gap three,” Piastri’s race engineer Tom Stallard requested at the end of Q2.
Oscar Piastri had just finished his final lap to book a place in Q3, while Lando Norris was still under big pressure to deliver.
In what he admitted had been a messy qualifying until that point, Norris had to abort an earlier effort and was instructed to set a banker lap before two cooldown laps ahead of a final push lap, but that banker had left him in the elimination zone.
Norris duly delivered on his final tour and went on to beat Piastri to the front row in Q3, although both had to cede pole to the inevitable Max Verstappen.
“It definitely wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve ever been, just because I wasn’t in the rhythm,” Norris said. “My Q2 run two, lap one was pretty bad. It was just so close. I think I improved almost a tenth, but it gained me six positions.”
At high speed Monza, where catching a slipstream tends to provide a big boost, Stallard’s message is the most routine request in the world, especially given the slender margins in F1 2025. Just half a second covered the top 15, and in 11th Oliver Bearman was dumped out of Q2 despite only being three tenths slower than the fastest time of the session.
McLaren is also running with more downforce than the likes of Ferrari, so it needed to find ways to boost its top speeds, although the importance of tyre preparation and concerns over falling foul of the FIA’s minimum delta time rules meant chasing a tow wasn’t the only big ticket item and wasn’t fully exploited by the leading teams.
A normal gesture in normal circumstances, then, but not so much when the two cars in question are supposed to be battling each other tooth and nail for the world championship, with it not exactly being in Piastri’s interest to help Norris find an opening to start bringing down the 34-point gap.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images
It has to be stressed that Piastri’s tow, creating a wake on the racing line through Curva Grande before jumping off line to let Norris through, only provided a minimal benefit and did not make the difference between Norris advancing to Q3 or not – with Norris having 0.150s in hand. But it is the gesture that counts, and that has left some fans and observers confused about what continues to be a contender for F1’s ‘nicest’ title fight ever.
“Sometimes racing doesn’t require elegance”
When asked by Autosport if this kind of courtesy is now the norm at McLaren, and if it is expected to continue as the races keep ticking down and the pressure ramps up, team principal Andrea Stella pondered: “Well, it’s an interesting question. For some reason, as soon as Tom asked Oscar, I knew Oscar was going to do it.
“I think that’s the quality of the individuals behind the drivers that we have at McLaren. It’s the foundation of the way we go racing.
“If it’s the last race in Abu Dhabi, will we see the same? I can’t say, but at the moment I’m just very proud that these things happen, that Lando and Oscar go racing like they do.
“Having said that, the tow that Oscar gave Lando wasn’t a decisive factor for Lando to go to Q3, but in itself it’s a nice gesture of fairness and sportsmanship that we do like to see.”
But how will McLaren react if that does stop, which surely at one point it will?
“It’s within the rights of the driver to say I’m not going to do it this time,” Stella replied. “I would consider it potentially not the most elegant move, but sometimes racing doesn’t necessarily require elegance as long as you operate within the principles and the rules of the team.”
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