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 round in Baku. In Monza, in September, Piastri, then championship leader, was instructed to yield second place to his teammate Lando Norris after having gained the position following a mix-up in their pit stops. At the time, Piastri stated that the decision was “fair” and that he and McLaren were “aligned” on the decision. Two weeks later, in Azerbaijan, Piastri crashed in both qualifying and the race, a pointless weekend that started a slump that has left him 24 points behind Norris, with three races to go. Piastri admitted that Monza’s decisions affected him.
Piastri explained that in Baku, things didn’t work well on Friday, he felt he was pushing too hard and wasn’t happy with his driving, trying to compensate on Saturday. The driver mentioned engine problems in the first free practice session, as well as driving poorly and using C6 tires (the softest compound from Pirelli) which are notoriously difficult to handle. “There were many small things that finally added up,” he added.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
The driver added that, although it was a terrible weekend, the learning obtained was very valuable from a technical and emotional point of view. Piastri concluded by saying that all drivers have had disastrous weekends and that learning from those experiences is fundamental.Ultimately, Baku was the perfect storm of quite a few things.
Oscar Piastri
