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Laurence EdmondsonSep 12, 2025, 08:26 AM<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>\u2022\u00a0Joined ESPN in 2009 Oscar Piastri<\/a> has ruled out taking a more ruthless approach to this year’s title fight if it comes at the risk of jeopardising his long-term success with McLaren.<\/p>\n Piastri is engaged in a tense battle with teammate Lando Norris<\/a> for this year’s drivers’ crown, but saw his lead cut by three points (to 31) after complying with a controversial team order at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n McLaren’s pit wall told Piastri to give second place back to his teammate after a delay in changing Norris’ tyres at a late pit stop saw Piastri move ahead of Norris on track.<\/p>\n The team order raised questions about McLaren’s potential interference in the championship battle, and whether Piastri should have simply ignored his team and secured second place.<\/p>\n In an exclusive interview with ESPN this week, Piastri said constructive talks over the Monza incident had already taken place and that he fully trusts McLaren’s handling of the situation.<\/p>\n “We have had very good discussions this week about what went on and what can be made clearer, what can be improved,” Piastri said. “That’s 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 “And ultimately, I want to protect that because I can’t have my own success without the team having success. So protecting that is a very important thing for me.”<\/p>\n Asked if he would take a more ruthless approach over the remaining eight races to ensure he is crowned champion, Piastri added: “Not at the cost of future success. Definitely not.”<\/p>\n Along with Norris’ slow pit stop, the Monza incident was further complicated by McLaren pitting its drivers out of their usual sequence so as to defend Piastri’s third-place position from the threat of Charles Leclerc<\/a>‘s Ferrari in fourth.<\/p>\n Norris even suggested over team radio that Piastri pit before him, but only on the understanding that his teammate would not gain a position with the “undercut” advantage of switching to fresh tyres a lap earlier.<\/p>\n – Inside McLaren’s recent history of team orders and close calls<\/a> McLaren changed Piastri’s tyres in 1.9 seconds on Lap 45 — the fastest pit stop of any team this season — while Norris’ stop took 5.9 seconds on Lap 46, dropping him to third place and behind Piastri when he exited the pits.<\/p>\n When his race engineer Tom Stallard first asked him to give the position back, Piastri appeared to question whether Norris’ slow stop was a good enough reason to swap the cars.<\/p>\n “We said a slow pit stop was part of racing,” Piastri said over team radio. “I don’t really get what changed here … But if you want me to do it, I’ll do it.”<\/p>\n However, when Piastri heard Stallard repeat the order, he said he felt obliged to comply with the team’s wishes.<\/p>\n “I think in the moment, obviously, I questioned it on the radio as racing drivers often do and as we get encouraged to do,” Piastri explained. “But I think, for me, once I had the second request, for me at that point I’m always going to respect that call.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laurence EdmondsonSep 12, 2025, 08:26 AM Close\u2022\u00a0Joined ESPN in 2009\u2022\u00a0An FIA accredited F1 journalist since 2011 Oscar Piastri…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-138109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2022\u00a0An FIA accredited F1 journalist since 2011<\/p>\nOscar Piastri (left) wants to ensure McLaren’s team success is protected in this year’s title fight.\u00a0Mark Sutton – Formula 1\/Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n
– McLaren walking a ‘fairness’ tightrope with Norris, Piastri<\/a>
– Piastri: McLaren team order to swap with Lando Norris was ‘fair’<\/a><\/p>\n