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Oscar Piastri has insisted that he and his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, are in control of their own destiny as they fight for the Formula One world championship after the pair were involved in a highly controversial swap imposed by the team at the Italian Grand Prix.
Given the pair are in a two-horse race for the title, the question of team orders playing a potentially decisive role loomed large after Monza. Max Verstappen won the race but McLaren’s decision to have Piastri return second place to Norris, after the British driver lost the position due to a slow pit stop caused by a faulty wheel gun, was contentious.
With Norris claiming second place he gained three points on his teammate in the championship standings, narrowing the gap to 31 points. Many fans were aggrieved at the perceived manipulation of the result and the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, warned that the team’s use of team orders in an effort to be as fair as possible to both drivers risked setting precedents that would become increasingly hard to manage in the title run-in.
Speaking before this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Piastri was confident that ultimately it would be the drivers, not the team, that decided the title fight. “I do think we have enough freedom to control our own destiny in the championship,” Piastri said. “Naturally there have been thoughts, we have had good discussions with the team. We have clarified a lot of things, we know how we will go racing going forwards.”
When asked to move over at Monza the Australian had questioned the call, noting on the team radio: “We said that a slow pit-stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what changed here”. In Baku he said he stuck by his words but went on to explain that the slow stop had not been the sole rationale behind McLaren’s actions.
“That is a decision we’ve made, that a slow pit stop is a part of racing,” he said. “In the car, the context wasn’t there about what else had happened in terms of the pit stop sequencing.
“There was another factor outside of the slow pit stop, being the order we pitted in. That was a contributing factor to why we swapped. We can’t plan for every scenario but we are very aligned and I respect the team’s decisions and trust they will do their best to make the right one.”
Norris said he too was confident the team would not play a significant role in the title battle. “We both agreed with it after and accepted that’s what we agree as a team,” he said. “The team try and keep things fair between us but there’s not been many things where they’ve had to actually get involved and do anything to help one or the other.”
Wolff, who managed what became a bitter and acrimonious fight between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, had said he believed McLaren were setting up a potentially incendiary situation. “You set a precedent that is very difficult to undo,” he said after Monza. “What if the team makes another mistake and it’s not a pit stop. Do you switch them around?”
Many fans were equally displeased, with Norris receiving some booing on the podium at Monza, but Piastri was happy the team had made an acceptable call.
“If we had done the opposite thing, then you’d have the opposite half of the fans saying that that was wrong and vice versa,” he said, “So ultimately there’s no correct decision. Am I surprised [by the backlash]? Not really. I guess it’s a big moment from the race and I feel like a lot of fans are quite quick to jump on things that are deemed controversial.”
McLaren go into the race with the chance of sealing their second consecutive constructors’ championship and their 10th in total, with a record of the earliest point in a season, with seven races still remaining. They lead Ferrari in second by 337 points and will take the title if they outscore them by nine points and are not outscored by Mercedes by 12 points or Red Bull by 33 points.
