Oscar Piastri revealed that McLaren’s team orders at the Italian Grand Prix were still on his mind when he suffered a complicated weekend in the following race in Baku. In Monza, in September, Piastri, who at that moment was leading the championship, was ordered to concede second place to his teammate Lando Norris after having gained the position following a problem in the pit stops. At that moment, Piastri declared that the decision was “fair” and that both he and McLaren were “aligned” in that decision. Two weeks later, in Azerbaijan, Piastri crashed in both qualifying and the race, leading to a pointless weekend and the start of a slump that has left him 24 points behind Norris, with three races remaining. Piastri admitted that Monza’s decisions affected him.
Piastri also mentioned that in Baku, Friday was difficult, things weren’t working and he wasn’t happy with his driving, trying to compensate on Saturday. The Australian driver also explained that there were some technical problems and the use of C6 tires, Pirelli’s softest, which were difficult to manage. All this combined to create a complicated weekend.Obviously, the previous race was Monza, where I didn’t feel it was a particularly good weekend in terms of my performance and, obviously, what happened with the pit stops.
Oscar Piastri
Piastri concluded that, despite how terrible the weekend was, he learned a lot from a technical and emotional point of view, which proved to be useful for his development as a driver. He also highlighted that it is common for drivers to have difficult weekends, and that learning from those experiences is fundamental.Ultimately, Baku was the perfect storm of several things.
Oscar Piastri
