{"id":153050,"date":"2025-09-18T22:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153050\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T22:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:44:09","slug":"oscar-piastri-makes-mark-webber-admission-after-mclaren-monza-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153050\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri makes Mark Webber admission after McLaren Monza talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time Formula 1 took the checkered flag, it was under highly controversial conditions, with the McLaren team advising Oscar Piastri to cede position to teammate Lando Norris after the Briton had a slow pit stop. But much like his mentor Mark Webber, Piastri isn\u2019t letting the drama get to him.<\/p>\n

Speaking to media ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Piastri<\/a> noted that manager Webber had little to say about the affair \u2014 and that, further, they both better understand the reasons behind the request for Piastri to move over.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri shuts down ongoing Monza speculation<\/p>\n

A fairly uninspiring Italian Grand Prix brought plenty of drama in the closing stages of the race, when second-placed Lando Norris advised his McLaren team to pit Oscar Piastri first in the final 10 laps, only for Norris to suffer a slow stop that saw him emerge on track behind his teammate.<\/p>\n

Piastri expressed some initial surprise on the radio, pointing out that \u201cslow pit stops\u201d were deemed to be a part of racing by the team. Still, he moved over to allow his teammate through.<\/p>\n

What followed was a steady outcry in both traditional motorsport media and on social media, with pundits and fans alike wondering if the team in papaya had exerted far too much influence over the finish of a race that could indeed be critical to its drivers overall fight for a drivers\u2019 title.<\/p>\n

But speaking to media ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri admitted that, after some discussions with the team, he understands why the call was made.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper into F1 ahead of the Azerbaijan GP:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Eleven moments of Azerbaijan GP chaos as F1 returns to Baku<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0What\u2019s really behind F1\u2019s push for more Sprint races?<\/a><\/p>\n

Primarily, Piastri pointed out that there was a \u201ccontributing factor\u201d to the team order that he had not been aware of during the race: The pit sequencing that ultimately led to the slow stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cNaturally, there\u2019s been thoughts, yes,\u201d Piastri admitted to media during the pre-race weekend FIA press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had good discussions with the team. Obviously a highly talked about moment, but yeah, you know, we\u2019ve had a lot of discussions, clarified a lot of things, and we know how we\u2019re going to go racing going forward, which is the most important thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happened is done, and I\u2019m excited to go racing here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would remain Piastri\u2019s bottom line throughout his media availability: That contributing factor led to the orders from the team.<\/p>\n

Piastri, Norris, and the team discussed various scenarios for the future, but the Australian driver admitted that \u201cI can\u2019t get into every scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you know from Monza, you know, 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,\u201d he clarified.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that one, I\u2019m quite happy to talk about, because it\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut any other scenarios, again, you can\u2019t plan for every single scenario that\u2019s going to happen, but I think we\u2019re realigned, and ultimately I respect the team\u2019s decisions and trust that they\u2019ll certainly do their best to make the right ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much was made of the fact that Piastri\u2019s manager Mark Webber went to McLaren hospitality after the race to speak with his driver, with many speculating that Webber\u2019s advice would be colored by his experiences playing second fiddle to Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull Racing. But according to Piastri, Webber didn\u2019t say much.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the biggest thing for me from Monza was, it was a weekend where I deserved to finish third.\u201d Piastri continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t deserve to finish second because of the pace I had. I was quick at certain points, but not quick enough the whole weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd ultimately, that\u2019s kind of my main takeaway from that, what I\u2019m trying to focus on going forwards. Mark is very much on the same page with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, I\u2019ve discussed with the team and with Mark about what happened, and we\u2019re all aligned going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri continued to be quizzed on all the potential variables of future team orders. He explained that, if the scenario was exactly the same as it had been in Monza, he would understand the request from McLaren \u2014 but that it\u2019s \u201cvirtually impossible\u201d to have the same scenario.<\/p>\n

Further, he clarified that still stands by his radio message regarding slow pit stops being a part of racing. But there were mitigating factors in Monza.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, in the car at the time, the context wasn\u2019t there about what else had happened in terms of the pit stop sequencing,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo again, it was decided that there was another factor for the reasoning in swapping. Every situation is going to look a bit different.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Piastri, the fan outcry was unsurprising because \u201cI feel like a lot of fans are quite quick to jump on things that are deemed controversial.\u201d<\/p>\n

But more than anything else, his belief in the sanctity of the championship remains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think we have enough freedom to control our own destiny in the championship,\u201d Piastri stated definitively.<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku City Circuit will be the latest step in defining those championship hopes. McLaren is expected to lock up the constructors\u2019 title; a win for one driver and a third place for the other is all it\u2019d need to do so. However, there are still seven races remaining in which to decide whether it will be Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri securing the honor of drivers\u2019 champion.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Surprise declaration for FIA Presidency emerges as time ticks down for formal application<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time Formula 1 took the checkered flag, it was under highly controversial conditions, with the McLaren…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,54428,817,813,816,818,57190,913,44,2333,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-153050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-azerbaijan-grand-prix","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-italian-grand-prix","16":"tag-mclaren","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-oscar-piastri","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153050","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=153050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}