Oscar Piastri was quizzed about McLaren’s infamous radio order at the Italian Grand Prix earlier this month as he faced the media in Baku ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Oscar Piastri has admitted he may not have followed McLaren’s team order at Monza if he had been leading the race. The instruction to let Lando Norris pass him late in the Italian Grand Prix caused a stir and could play a significant part in the outcome of the Formula 1 title race.
Piastri was told to move aside because a slow pit stop had dropped Norris behind him, after the Aussie had already pitted. The Aussie was given priority for a change of tyres despite the Brit having been ahead of the whole race, as McLaren moved to see off any threat from Charles Leclerc behind.
But the order was seen as controversial because the McLaren pair are direct title rivals. Piastri is now 31 points in front of Norris, heading into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, rather than the 37-point advantage he would have had if he did not comply.
“We have had good discussions with the team,” said Piastri. “Obviously a highly talked-about moment but we have had a lot of discussions, clarified a lot of things, and we know how we are going to go racing going forward, which is the most important thing. What has happened is done.”
Piastri initially questioned the order over the radio but also said he would comply if he was asked again. And so, when the request for him to move aside and let Norris by came for a second time, he acquiesced without complaint.
The fact there was only a six-point swing on the line, because they were competing for second and third, perhaps made it easier for Piastri to swallow. It may have been a tougher decision had Max Verstappen not been ahead and there was a 14-point swing at stake.
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He admitted he may have approached it differently as he said: “Would it have made it a bit more difficult? Probably yes. But I do not know if the outcome would have been different. He also warned Norris that he does not intend to be trailing his team-mate again, adding: “I am not planning on finding myself in that position.”
McLaren are on the verge of sealing the constructors’ title and will do so in Baku if they score nine or more points greater than Ferrari and avoid being beaten by Mercedes and Red Bull. The external focus has, for a long time, been on the drivers’ championship with McLaren having dominated their rivals.
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But Piastri insists it is “not necessarily” the case that team orders will no longer be in play once the teams’ title is secured, and did not want to go into detail and risk giving away their internal plans to rival teams.
He said: “We have, again, had a lot of discussions about how we want to go racing, and a lot of that is to stay for us because, ultimately, if we give out that information, then we will become very easy targets to pick off because everybody knows what we are going to do. So that is all very aligned with all of us, but stays in-house.”
