Piastri: McLaren team order “fair” after Italian GP; Norris leads

Piastri Downplays Team Orders Controversy at the Italian Grand Prix

Pilot Oscar Piastri has downplayed the controversy generated by McLaren’s team orders during the Italian Grand Prix. According to the Australian, it was “fair” to concede the position to his teammate Lando Norris in the final stages of the race. Both Piastri and team boss Andrea Stella pointed out that the situation will be discussed and reviewed before the next championship race in Azerbaijan. Piastri was in third position, behind Norris and Max Verstappen, when McLaren made the strategic decision to delay the pit stops of both cars, hoping to gain an advantage from a late safety car period. To protect Piastri’s podium from Charles Leclerc, in fourth place, the Australian was called to the pits before Norris, a decision that broke McLaren’s convention of giving the preferred strategy to the leading car. Norris was reassured by team radio, assuring him that the second pit stop would not delay him behind Piastri. However, a slow change of the front left tire delayed his stop, emerging behind his teammate. Subsequently, Piastri was instructed to slow down and allow Norris to regain second place before both drivers could compete until the end. The championship leader complied with the order, but communicated by radio to the team: “We said a slow pit stop was part of racing, I really don’t understand what changed here, but if they want me to do it, I will.” Norris finished the race ahead of Piastri, taking three points off his teammate’s lead in the championship, which is now 31 points, with eight races remaining.

“It’s something we’ll discuss, we’ve discussed it before,” said Piastri. “I think today was a fair request.”

Oscar Piastri

Piastri went on to say: “Lando qualified ahead, was ahead the whole race and lost that position through no fault of his own. I said what I had to say on the radio. And once I received the second request, then I’m not going to go against the team, I think there are a lot of people to protect and a culture to protect beyond just Lando and, ultimately, that’s something very important in the future.”

In Monza, Stella stated that allowing Piastri to pit before Norris was an important factor in the decision to swap the cars once Norris fell behind his teammate. Stella added that the situation with the pit stops is not just a matter of fairness, but also of consistency with McLaren’s principles. The team will seek to reinforce its guidelines and ensure that both the drivers and the team are in tune for the rest of the season.