Piastri Confesses: McLaren Orders and Baku Crashes Impacted His Performance

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has revealed that team orders at the Italian Grand Prix were still resonating in his mind when he suffered a complicated weekend at the following race in Baku. In Monza, in September, Piastri, who was leading the championship at that moment, received the instruction to yield second place to his teammate, Lando Norris, after having gained the position following a mistake in the pit stops. At that moment, Piastri qualified the decision as “fair” and stated that he and McLaren were “aligned” in 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 affected him.

Obviously, the previous race was Monza, where I didn’t feel my performance was particularly good, and then the pit stop situation happened.

Oscar Piastri

Furthermore, in Baku, Piastri reported that things didn’t go well, he felt forced and wasn’t happy with his driving, trying to compensate on Saturday. Piastri mentioned that there were engine problems in the first free practice session, which destabilized things a bit. In addition, they faced the C6 tires, known to be difficult to handle. All these factors contributed to a complicated weekend.

In Italy, Piastri was the first to pit, despite not being the leading car, due to McLaren’s concern about the threat of Charles Leclerc, who was in fourth place. A slow pit stop delayed Norris, causing them to swap positions. Piastri hasn’t won a race since then. Piastri described the weekend in Baku as his “worst weekend” in racing. He acknowledged that it was a “perfect storm” of several factors.

Obviously, it was a terrible weekend, but I think the amount of learning we got from that weekend, from a technical and emotional point of view…

Oscar Piastri

Piastri added that, although it was the worst weekend of his career, it turned out to be the most useful in some respects. In addition, he stressed that it is common for drivers to have difficult weekends and that learning from those experiences is fundamental.