McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has revealed that the team orders implemented at the Italian Grand Prix still resonated in his mind during the complicated weekend in Baku. In Monza, the championship leader at the time, Piastri, was instructed to concede second position to his teammate, Lando Norris, after having gained the position due to confusion in the pit stops. At that moment, Piastri stated that the decision was “fair” and that both he and McLaren were “aligned” with the decision. Two weeks later, in Azerbaijan, Piastri suffered accidents in both qualifying and the race, resulting in a point-less weekend and triggering a streak that left him 24 points behind Norris, with three races remaining. Piastri admitted that Monza’s decisions had an impact on his performance.
Piastri explained that in Baku, things didn’t work as he expected and that he was trying to compensate in Saturday’s qualifying.Obviously, the previous race was Monza, where I didn’t feel my performance was particularly good, and obviously the pit stop situation happened.
Oscar Piastri
The team had a problem with the engine in the first practice session, which destabilized things a bit, and also he wasn’t driving well. They were using the C6 tires, Pirelli’s softest compound, which are notoriously difficult to handle. According to the driver, there were many small details that added up.
Ultimately, Baku was the perfect storm of several things. Obviously, it was a pretty terrible weekend, but I think the amount of learning we got from that weekend, from a technical and emotional point of view…
Oscar Piastri
