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. At the race, McLaren ordered Piastri to return second place to Norris, following a slow pit stop caused by a faulty wheel gun. Piastri questioned the call at the time but later explained that the slow stop was not the sole rationale. “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,” he said.
Norris said he was confident the team would not play a significant role in the title battle. “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,” he said. The swap narrowed the championship gap to 31 points in Norris’s favour.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff warned that such team orders risked setting a difficult precedent. Piastri, however, was unperturbed by the backlash from fans, noting that any decision would divide opinion. “If we had done the opposite thing, then you’d have the opposite half of the fans saying that that was wrong,” he said. McLaren head to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with the chance to seal the constructors’ championship.
