Piastri “clarified a lot of things” with McLaren over Italian GP team orders

Oscar Piastri says he and McLaren discussed many aspects of their controversial Italian Grand Prix team orders after the race earlier this month.

McLaren ordered Piastri to drop behind his team mate after Lando Norris suffered a slow pit stop during the race. The team had taken the unusual step of pitting Piastri first when he had been running behind Norris, owing to the proximity of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari behind them.

Piastri challenged the team’s decision on his radio during the race, suggesting they had previously decided a slow pit stop would not be sufficient to trigger a position swap. Ahead of this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix Piastri said he had “good discussions with the team” over the incident.

“Obviously it’s a highly talked-about moment but we’ve had a lot of discussions and clarified a lot of things,” he said. “We know how we’re going to go racing going forwards, which is the most important thing.”

However Piastri was unwilling to explain what the team discussed. “A lot that is to stay for us because ultimately if we give out that information then we become very easy targets to pick off because everyone knows what we’re going to do,” he said. “That’s all very aligned with all of us, but it stays in-house.”

Piastri spent much of the race in third place behind Max Verstappen and Norris. He feels the result he came away with was a fair reflection of how he performed.

“The biggest thing for me from Monza was it was a weekend where I deserved to finish third,” he said. “I didn’t deserve to finish second because of the pace I had. I was quick at certain points but not quick enough the whole weekend.

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“Ultimately, that’s my main takeaway from that, what I’m trying to focus on going forwards.”

However he admitted it would have been more difficult to go along with McLaren’s call had he been leading the race. “Would it have made it a bit more difficult? Probably yes.

“I don’t know if the outcome would have been different. But I’m not planning on finding myself in that position.”

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