McLaren driver Oscar Piastri revealed that the team orders implemented at the Italian Grand Prix still resonated in his mind during the complicated weekend in Baku. In Monza, in September, Piastri, who was leading the championship at that moment, was ordered to concede second place to his teammate, Lando Norris. This happened after Piastri gained the position due to confusion in the pit stops. At that time, Piastri qualified the decision as “fair” and stated that he and McLaren were “aligned” regarding the decision. Two weeks later, in Azerbaijan, Piastri suffered accidents in both qualifying and the race. This point-less weekend marked the beginning of a streak that left him 24 points behind Norris, with three races remaining. Piastri admitted that the decisions made in Monza affected him.
The driver also mentioned engine problems in the first free practice session and the difficulties in managing Pirelli’s C6 tires.Obviously, the previous race was Monza, where I didn’t feel my performance was particularly good, and obviously the pit stop thing happened. But also in Baku, Friday was difficult, things weren’t working, I was pushing, I wasn’t very happy with my driving and, ultimately, I probably tried to compensate a bit on Saturday.
Oscar Piastri
Piastri concluded that the weekend in Baku was the worst of his career, but also the most useful in some aspects.Ultimately, Baku was the perfect storm of several things. Obviously, it was a pretty terrible weekend, but I think the amount of learning we got from that weekend, from a technical and emotional point of view…
Oscar Piastri
