Oscar Piastri Addresses McLaren F1 Team Orders at Italian GP

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri finished third at the Italian Grand Prix, reaching the lowest step on the podium.

Piastri qualified in third, starting behind his teammate, Lando Norris, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

After 53 laps, the Aussie finished where he started, capping off an underwhelming weekend when he tried to avoid losing too many points in the title race.

Piastri came in with a 34-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship, and at the end of one of his toughest weekends this season, the gap only closed to 31 points from Norris.

Following the race, Piastri reflected on the entire race weekend.

“A difficult beginning, maybe not my best first couple of laps. We seemed to have pretty good pace compared to Charles, then I had to get past, and it was a pretty lonely race from there,” Piastri told reporters after the session.

“Just struggled a bit through the first part of the race. The car wasn’t exactly how I liked.

“Once the tyres went away, it felt a bit better which is never a great sign. Happy with the points and I will take it.”

Piastri’s race didn’t lack controversy — he was ahead towards the end of the race, but McLaren made the call to have him swap places with Norris.

The Brit had a slow pit stop, which left him behind Piastri, and the team deemed it fair for the drivers to swap the order since Norris had qualified ahead of his teammate. and had been comfortably ahead of Piastri at the time of the pit stop.

“This is a bit like Hungary last year; we pitted in this order for team reasons,” Piastri’s race engineer, Tom Stallard, said on the radio.

“Please let Lando pass, and then you’re free to race.”

In response to the team order, Piastri protested the decision.

“I mean, we said that a slow pitstop was part of racing,” Piastri added. “I don’t really get what’s changed here, but if you really want to do it, I’ll do it.”

Without the switch, Piastri would have a 37-point lead, but now he is left with a smaller lead than at the start.