McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has said that he regrets putting the team in a situation where they had to order Oscar Piastri to move aside for Lando Norris at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The pair have worked together in numerous races this season to maximise the team's result, and have done it to great success to see them now hot on the heels of Aston Martin for a place in the top four in the constructors' championship.
However, Japan saw a different situation for the team, where both Piastri and Norris were fighting for podium finishes, and potentially even the opportunity to challenge Max Verstappen for the race win.
Having been overtaken by his British team-mate at the start of the race, Piastri found himself as the lead McLaren later in the race after making use of a virtual safety car period.
Piastri came home to take his first podium of the season, alongside Norris
Despite it all working out well in the end, Stella has expressed the need for the team to avoid this situation in the future.
“It [Japan] was much, much easier in a way, as those two situations were stressful, especially the one in Monza," he told Autosport.
“And when I say stressful, I mean stressful because we created stress between our two drivers, which we could have avoided, really.
Lando Norris secured a P2 result for McLaren at the Japanese Grand PrixWhile team-mate Piastri came home in third, both behind race winner Max Verstappen
“That’s something that we reviewed. It may happen again in the future, but when it is avoidable, we should avoid it.
“In this case, the approach was, let’s see how fast Lando is closing, and let’s see if the overtaking comes naturally.
“When we saw that it doesn’t come so natural, then we asked the drivers to swap, so that we wouldn’t lose race time for both.”