What McLaren absolutely ‘cannot’ do in Baku – laid out by Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg says pit stops, even the slow ones, have to be considered part of the state of play in a grand prix as teams cannot go into the final laps counting the tenths.

His comments come in the wake of McLaren’s controversial use of team orders at the Italian Grand Prix where Lando Norris lost second place to Oscar Piastri as a result of a slow pit stop.

Nico Rosberg tells McLaren: “You know, you cannot.”

McLaren courted controversy at the Italian Grand Prix when the team ordered Piastri to give second place to Norris to re-establish their running order prior to the Briton’s slow pit stop.

Norris had been running second behind Max Verstappen when McLaren finally pitted late in the race, with Piastri the first to stop after Norris’ race engineer Will Joseph was made it clear to the Briton that he would not be undercut.

Joseph said: “There will be no undercut.”

Unfortunately for McLaren it didn’t work out that way as while Piastri made a 1.9s pit stop, Norris was stationary for 5.9s due to a wheel nut issue on his front left tyre. He rejoined the action behind Piastri.

Piastri’s race engineer Tom Stallard told the Australian racer to cede the position to Norris, but Piastri briefly argued as his cause as he pointed out that McLaren’s policy was that pit stops were part of racing.

More on McLaren’s Monza team orders

👉 Inside F1 teammate rivalries: Why Oscar Piastri is Lando Norris’ greatest threat

👉 Ranked: Five of the most infamous team orders calls in F1 history

“I mean, we said that a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here,” he said.

But given the instruction a second time, Piastri moved over for his teammate and finished the grand prix two seconds down on Norris, much to the amusement of race winner Max Verstappen.

Told by his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase that McLaren had swapped positions, Verstappen replied with a chuckle: “Ha! Just because he had a slow stop?”

Verstappen, though, wasn’t the only one perplexed by the decision to swap positions for a slow stop.

2016 F1 World Champion Rosberg revealed it is something that every team speaks about, and as far as he’s aware, they all say a slow stop is part of racing.

After all, a team cannot get to the final few laps of a grand prix and add up the tenths gained or lost in a pit stop and the consequences of those before deciding the finishing order for its drivers.

“I do think that there was an agreement on McLaren that pit stop times are part of racing, and that’s what’s made this so difficult,” he told Sky Sports’ F1 Show.

“And that makes sense, that a team would say pit stop times are part of racing. It makes sense.”

Pointed out by Simon Lazenby “that’s why Max Verstappen nicely”…

“Was laughing about this,” chipped in Rosberg. “Exactly.

“Because every team will have pit stop times as part of racing because it’s impossible to police that. I mean, no pit stop is ever going to be the same.

“So are you just all day going to be running after, that teammate, his stop was five-tenths slower, that caused him in the end of the race to get overtaken.

“You know, you cannot.

“So that’s why the team will have defined pit stop time as part of racing, just like every other team, and that’s what’s made the situation so, so difficult.”

Piastri will line up on on the Baku grid leading Norris by 31 points in the Drivers’ standings as the McLaren teammates battle for the World title.

Read next: Oscar Piastri’s team orders vow after internal McLaren discussions