Why rivals are laughing at McLaren bid for fairness - 2025 Italian GP takeaways

The 2025 Italian Grand Prix didn’t deliver a thriller on track, but it left plenty to dissect off it.

From McLaren sparking controversy with a team order that risks setting a dangerous precedent, to Red Bull briefly rediscovering its old dominance, Monza provided storylines that will echo well beyond the chequered flag.

McLaren call sets dangerous precedent

If not for a bad pitstop, McLaren’s Italian Grand Prix would have been pretty inconsequential.

In any other circumstances, Max Verstappen‘s dominance could have been a reason for concern, but McLaren has both titles almost wrapped up, so having an ‘off’ weekend is nothing to be too worried about at this point in the season.

But the decision to ask Piastri to give up second place to Norris put McLaren in the spotlight and raised questions about its protocols.

The call set a dangerous precedent in McLaren’s attempts to be as fair as possible to its drivers, and Verstappen laughing at the decision on the radio is a good illustration of what many felt about it.

Piastri’s engineer Tom Stallard justified the call by saying the situation was like Hungary last year, when the Australian was undercut by Norris as a result of the strategy.

However, as Piastri himself pointed out, the Monza situation was not the same, far from it, as him moving up to second was not the result of a strategy call.

In Hungary last year, the undercut was so powerful that it was clear Norris would benefit from it and both McLaren and Piastri were fully aware of it, hence the decision to ask the Briton to swap places with the Australian.

On top of that, the reason why McLaren pitted Norris before Piastri was the pressure from its rivals.

At Monza, McLaren put itself in a tricky position by punishing Piastri – its championship leader – for an error he had nothing to do with; the undercut wasn’t his doing, but a mistake by the team.

Team boss Andrea Stella defended the decision by saying the call was in McLaren’s best interest in its attempt to comply with its principles.

As noble as that is, McLaren has to be aware that it’s putting itself in an almost impossible situation in which, to comply with those principles at all times, it would need to make up for every setback that either driver suffers.

If a slow pitstop is unfair and has to be made up for, what’s next? Why not ask Piastri to give up a win to make up for Norris’s Zandvoort retirement? Yes, that is taking McLaren’s logic to a silly extreme, but such is the predicament the team has put itself in with its Monza call.

McLaren is lucky that Piastri is not the outspoken type, or it could have faced a much bigger backlash.

Red Bull found some of its old magic

What a difference a year made for Red Bull.

A year ago at Monza, Red Bull looked like a team in decline. The squad had fallen into a vicious cycle of set-up compromises and straight-line speed deficiencies that left Verstappen powerless against McLaren and Ferrari.

Verstappen could manage only a muted seventh place, miles behind its rivals.

Fast forward to 2025, and the contrast could hardly be sharper.

Verstappen and Red Bull came out of Monza looking like it was 2023, the world champion winning by nearly 20 seconds, even after having to pass Norris, who had taken the lead after the Dutchman was asked to relinquish it early on.

Verstappen’s dominance was the result of a combination of strategic set-up and Red Bull’s focus on straight-line speed at Monza, not to mention a masterful display of driving by the man himself.

Several technical factors contributed to Verstappen’s advantage, notably Red Bull’s choice of a lower-downforce set-up geared toward maximising top speed with a Monza-specific rear wing.

Verstappen hasn’t had many opportunities to dominate races like he did at Monza, and while his display in Italy may have been a one-off given McLaren’s superiority, it was a reminder that he is almost unbeatable when things go his way.

Stewarding calls continue to baffle drivers

Stewarding decisions once again came under fire after the Bearman/Sainz incident at Monza, continuing a trend of baffling rulings that followed the controversial Sainz/Lawson clash at Zandvoort.

In the Italian Grand Prix, Bearman received a 10-second penalty and two penalty points after tangling with Sainz at Turn 4, with the stewards declaring Bearman predominantly at fault for not yielding to Sainz, who had achieved the required overlap at the apex.

In light of Sainz’s Zandvoort penalty, it was perhaps not surprising to see Bearman being punished for the incident, but it still doesn’t help in clarifying how drivers are supposed to be racing.

As a result, Bearman is now on the brink of a race ban.

The penalty was pretty standard as per the regulations, but it still raises questions about consistency and logic, especially given the interpretation of the “right to the racing line” rule in high-speed, late-braking scenarios.

While the penalties may be accurately following the guidelines’ writing, the decisions defy the spirit and logic of competitive racing.

At this point, it feels like there are no ‘racing incidents’ anymore, regardless of context or intent.

Antonelli gets his first bit of criticism

Toto Wolff may have read some of the columns circulating on the internet questioning his robust defence of Kimi Antonelli regardless of his mistakes, because after Monza, the Mercedes boss was finally somewhat critical of his protégé.

The Italian GP weekend, a year on from his unfortunate public F1 debut in FP1, was another tough outing for the rookie, marked by spinning into the gravel during second practice, which hampered his race preparation and long-run data collection.

Antonelli had a pretty strong qualifying, finishing right behind team-mate George Russell in sixth, but that was followed by a poor start, which resulted in him dropping several places.

A recovery drive saw him climb to eighth, but a spate of track limits violations followed by a five-second penalty for forcing Alexander Albon off track left him classified ninth, well behind Russell.

Wolff’s tone shifted significantly after the event, describing Antonelli’s weekend as “underwhelming” and noting that such mistakes need to be eradicated.

While Wolff reiterated belief in Antonelli’s long-term potential, the first wave of criticism after Monza suggested that the grace period for rookie errors may be waning.

Same old story for Tsunoda

At this point, it’s no surprise to be writing that Yuki Tsunoda is running out of time to save his Red Bull seat.

In reality, he has likely already run out of time regardless of the public shows of support from team boss Laurent Mekies; Tsunoda has struggled for far too long now to think he stands a chance of keeping his seat, although only time will tell.

The Italian GP continued Tsunoda’s streak of disappointing outings, lining up ninth on the grid, over seven tenths behind team-mate Verstappen.

That gap was partly attributed to running an older floor specification on his Red Bull and missing out on the crucial slipstream in his Q3 lap.

But his race unravelled in traffic and included a mid-race clash with Liam Lawson that caused significant floor damage and destroyed his chance of scoring points.

The clash with Lawson led Tsunoda to finish a lacklustre 13th. Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar – the man some believe is in pole position to take Tsunoda’s seat – scored a point despite starting from the pitlane.

Getting the floor update might help, but it is unlikely it will make the difference Tsunoda needs.

Red Bull may be facing a difficult decision in picking Verstappen’s team-mate for 2026, but Tsunoda’s continued woes may actually help the team in deciding who not to pick.