F1: Nico Rosberg reacts to Oscar Piastri-Lando Norris switch and comparisons to his Lewis Hamilton title fights | F1 News

“Both routes were bad.”

The quandary that McLaren faced in the closing laps of the Italian Grand Prix- and whether they made the right decision to reverse the order of their drivers after a slow pit-stop for Lando Norris – continues to be debated in the days after the latest chapter was written in the story of 2025’s world title fight.

That discussion continues on the latest edition of The F1 Show podcast, in which 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg joins his Sky Sports F1 colleagues Simon Lazenby and David Croft to discuss all the major talking points from the Monza weekend, from McLaren’s team tactics, to Max Verstappen’s dominant return to winning ways and Kimi Antonelli’s struggles at Mercedes

On McLaren, Rosberg believes there was no “right or wrong” way for the title-leading team to handle the situation but does believe it was ultimately the fair call for them to instruct Oscar Piastri to give back the position he had inadvertently inherited from Norris’ pit delays.

“A lot of people will not like it, a lot of people will think it makes sense,” said Rosberg of McLaren’s lap-49 switch.

“I was happy they did that because with my hat that I have on, I want a super-exciting Formula 1 championship until the very end.

“So, I was happy that in that case Lando had the opportunity to get the deserved points since he personally did a better job than Oscar in the Monza weekend.

“So, I thought it was good that they did that. But it’s impossible. There’s no right or wrong.”

Still, and although he complied, Rosberg believes it would not have been an easy call for Piastri to stomach given the nature of what happened.

“It’s a hard one because if you’re Oscar, it will drive you nuts because it’s never been done before and until then, I think internally, pit stop speed is part of racing,” Rosberg suggested.

“If one guy’s pit stop is a second slower and that results in a win, that’s always going to be part of racing historically. That’s always how it’s been.

“So, of course, in Oscar’s view, you would not like it very much. But he wasn’t given a choice. Once the team calls him out, he’s obliged to let him pass.”

On the exact nature of the scenario and how it would have been governed by McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ of engagement, Rosberg added “It all depends how clearly it’s written down in the rules, but you cannot write something like that down in the rules because pit stop times are always a part of racing and the team cannot assure that everybody’s always going to have the same pit stop times. It’s just like, at which point is it really unfair? It’s really hard.

“McLaren chose the better way, which was to redo the positions like before, because they messed up as a team and it’s not fair to get involved in that way into the Drivers’ Championship. So they took the route that was definitely better, but both routes were bad.”

What would ‘assassin’ Rosberg have done in Piastri’s shoes?

Piastri and Norris’ duel is the first time team-mates in F1 have gone head-to-head all season for the championship since Rosberg did so against Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes in 2014-2016.

That intra-team rivalry at the Silver Arrows proved far more combustible than the one currently playing out at McLaren. Indeed Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ team principal, on Sunday likened Rosberg and Hamilton at that time to being “two assassins” in how they approached trying to beat each other.

So, given that context from nine years ago when the title was settled in his favour in a tense Abu Dhabi finale, Rosberg was asked on the podcast whether he would have complied in the same way to such a call as Piastri at Monza?

“We had very clear silver rules, not papaya rules, silver rules [that] if we risk losing the race win to a competitor, we need to work together as a team to secure the race win,” he said.

“Monaco Grand Prix 2016, I’m racing against Lewis for the championship. I’m second, he is third, and Ricciardo is disappearing in the distance because I’m too slow.

“So the team, there’s a threat that we as a team are losing the race win. It’s clear. So the team comes on the radio and tells me, ‘you need to let Lewis pass because we might lose the race win here otherwise’.

“So I moved over and waved him past because it was clearly defined and, of course, it’s hard in the moment, but it’s then clear and easy to understand and you just got to do it.

“Lewis didn’t do it in Abu Dhabi, which was the same situation, but also that is understandable that you would then. If you’re an assassin, you want to try and maximise the grey areas.”

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