Piastri Reveals Impact of McLaren Team Orders on Baku Accidents

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 young driver was forced to concede second position to his teammate, Lando Norris, after a mix-up in the pit stops. Although Piastri initially qualified the decision as “fair”, the impact of this situation seems to have endured. Two weeks later, in Azerbaijan, Piastri suffered accidents in both qualifying and the race, marking the beginning of a difficult period that has left him 24 points behind Norris.

Obviously, the previous race was Monza, which I didn’t feel was a particularly good weekend for my own performance and obviously there was what happened with the pit stops. But then, also in Baku, Friday was difficult, things weren’t working, I was pushing too hard, I wasn’t very happy with how I was driving and, ultimately, probably trying to compensate for that a bit on Saturday.

Oscar Piastri

Piastri admitted that the decisions in Monza had an impact on his performance in Baku.

The Australian driver explained that a series of factors contributed to his poor performance in Baku, including engine problems and difficulties adapting to the C6 tires. In Italy, McLaren chose to pit Piastri first, despite not leading the race, due to the threat of Charles Leclerc. A slow pit stop relegated Norris behind Piastri, resulting in a swap of positions. Piastri described the weekend in Azerbaijan as “the worst” of his career, but also as a valuable learning experience.

Ultimately, Baku was the perfect storm of quite a few things. Obviously, it was a pretty terrible weekend, but I think the amount of learning we had from that weekend, from a technical point of view, from an emotional point of view…

Oscar Piastri

The pilot reflected on how even the most successful pilots have had difficult weekends, and how learning from those moments is crucial for growth.