Piastri told ESPN<\/a>. \u201cBut I think, for me, once I had the second request, for me at that point I\u2019m always going to respect that call.\u201d<\/p>\nBut several commentators suggested that Piastri should have ignored outright the request to cede position. Some suggested that the sport\u2019s most iconic greats, including Michael Schumacher and Max Verstappen, would not have tolerated being told to let their teammates through.<\/p>\n
Verstappen scoffed over team radio after discovering the order of drivers behind him had been switched via team orders.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because he had a slow stop?\u201d he laughed to his engineer.<\/p>\n
But Piastri said he wouldn\u2019t dial up the ruthlessness in pursuit of his first world championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at the cost of future success,\u201d he said. \u201cDefinitely not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri forced to give second place up | 01:18<\/p>\n
McLaren boss Andrea Stella would find Piastri\u2019s attitude to be a pleasing reflection of the values he\u2019s worked hard to instil in his team as the team has risen rapidly up the ranks from 2023 backmarker to double title contender in 2025.<\/p>\n
The Italian team principal has spoken at previous rounds about encouraging his drivers to speak their mind at all times to try to avoid the build-up of resentment and paranoia characteristic of title battles fought between teammates.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an integral part of the team-first culture McLaren espouses and which both drives appear to have bought into wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n
Stella summed up his policy at last year\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix after Norris needed to be convinced to hand victory back to Piastri following a similar strategic misstep.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about our principles, going racing,\u201d he said at the time. One principle, just to make an example \u2026 is: the interest of the team comes first.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you mess up on this matter, you cannot be part of the McLaren Formula 1 team. That\u2019s the principle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri said discussions after the Italian Grand Prix had cleared the air and led to improvements in the team\u2019s operations, with the Australian emphasising the importance of maintaining harmony inside the team to his own championship aspirations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had very good discussions this week about what went on and what can be made clearer, what can be improved,\u201d Piastri continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s always kind of a learning process, I guess. But yeah, ultimately I know that the team would have my best interests at heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd ultimately, I want to protect that because I can\u2019t have my own success without the team having success. So protecting that is a very important thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen wins after McLaren pit chaos | 04:05<\/p>\n
Speaking in Monza, the Australian reiterated his view that his and Norris\u2019s title hopes were intrinsically tied to playing the team game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want the chance of success just for this year,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want the best chance at winning championships for as long as we\u2019re Formula 1 drivers, and we\u2019re both at McLaren for a very long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtecting the people around us that give us this opportunity is a very important thing. It\u2019s easy enough to put yourself second at times like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtecting the people, that includes the people doing the pit stops. It\u2019s not a very nice feeling, I would imagine. It\u2019s important to protect all the people that we have because that\u2019s what gives us a championship hope for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norris said McLaren had learnt from blow-ups at other teams during championship battles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see [drivers] who don\u2019t have enough respect for the team and the opportunities the team gives, it doesn\u2019t normally last long,\u201d he said. \u201cYou see that with plenty of other teams, whether it\u2019s been Red Bull, Ferrari, or Mercedes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to try and be in this position for a longer period of time than what they have been at the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still early days \u2013 it\u2019s only our second year of fighting for wins \u2014 but like Oscar said, the team gives us these opportunities. Without the team, then we\u2019re just fighting for 10th, and none of us want that.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeam and the morale, the spirit of the team, is priority, and we\u2019re below that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has ruled out disobeying team orders if it risks damaging his internal standing and chance of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[13273,64,63,689,81114,99281,99285,13275,18241,99283,800,2057,817,813,816,2105,99280,2328,1737,99277,825,99286,844,932,677,2333,88575,2114,3595,85,99287,99282,31283,99284,99278,99279,23055,31303,21784,22779],"class_list":["post-146709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-stella","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-championship-aspirations","tag-championship-battles","tag-championship-hope","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-clive-rose","tag-cost-team","tag-espn-inc","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-italian-team-principal","tag-italy","tag-lando-norris","tag-learning-process","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mclaren-monza","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-monza","tag-oceania","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-pit-stops","tag-pit-wall","tag-southern-europe","tag-sports","tag-team-discussions","tag-team-game","tag-team-orders","tag-team-orders-stance","tag-title-battles","tag-title-campaigns","tag-title-contender","tag-title-hopes","tag-title-lead","tag-title-rival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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