Five things we learned about key McLaren talks from guarded Oscar Piastri

Unsurprisingly, most of the questions on F1 media day at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix were directed to Oscar Piastri.

Piastri, sat alongside Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly in the first FIA drivers’ press conference in Baku, had to deal with a barrage of questions about McLaren’s controversial decision to swap their drivers in the closing stages of the Italian Grand Prix.

McLaren ordered Piastri to let Lando Norris pass for second place after a slow pit stop put the Briton behind his teammate and direct championship rival with just a handful of laps to go at Monza.

The decision has divided opinion in the F1 paddock with McLaren facing an avalanche of criticism, but Piastri finally had a chance to defend his team following discussions in the two-week gap that followed the contentious race.

Here’s some of the key things we learned from what a tight-lipped Piastri was willing to share about those team talks…

Pit stop order influenced call

McLaren fundamentally created a problem for themselves by going against traditional convention and allowing Piastri, who was behind Norris on track, to stop first.

Normally it would have been Norris who would have come into the pits first as the lead driver, but he agreed to let Piastri make his stop as he had more than a big enough gap (in theory) to protect his position. However, a slow pit stop due to a wheel gun issue threw an unforeseen spanner in the works.

Piastri confirmed that this very unique circumstance ultimately influenced McLaren’s thinking when it came to asking their drivers to swap places .

“Naturally there’s been thoughts,” Piastri said. “We’ve had good discussions with the team. Obviously a highly-talked about moment but we’ve clarified a lot of things and we know how we’re going to go racing going forward, which is the most important thing.

“I can’t get into every scenario but I think from Monza 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. That one I’m quite happy to talk about because it’s happened.

“You can’t plan for every single scenario that’s going to happen but I think we’re very aligned and ultimately I respect the team’s decisions and trust that they’ll certainly do their best to make the right ones.”

McLaren would do it again

Piastri was also happy to confirm that McLaren would repeat the instruction if the exact same scenario unfolded again, which he insisted is highly unlikely.

“I think in exactly the same scenario then yes I would expect it to be the same,” the Australian said. “But I think the likelihood of the exact-same scenario is virtually impossible and every scenario is going to look different.

“There was another factor that was ultimately deemed to be the reason for the swap and I respect that decision. It’s impossible to know but if the situation was exactly the same then I expect it to be repeated.”

Constructors’ title won’t change things

This weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix presents McLaren with their first chance to wrap up the 2025 constructors’ world championship, but it seems that bagging the title will not impact the team’s approach to the in-house fight between their drivers.

“Not necessarily because of the constructors’ championship, but I think we’ve had a lot of discussions about how we want to go racing and a lot of that is to stay for us,” Piastri explained.

“Ultimately if we give out that information then we become very easy targets to pick off, because everyone knows what we’re going to do. That’s all very aligned with all of us but stays in-house.”

Piastri stands by view on slow pit stops

While Piastri agreed to let Norris through, he did initially question the order over team radio because it was his understanding that a slow pit stop was “part of racing" and therefore wouldn’t be corrected.

Piastri stands by that view, and says McLaren have also clarified that they agree. The crucial factor that made things different in Monza was the pit stop sequencing.

“I do still stand by it and that is a decision that we’ve made, that a slow pit stop is a part of racing,” he added.

“Obviously in the car at the time the context wasn’t there in terms of what else had happened in terms of pit stop sequencing. Again, it was decided there was another factor for the reasoning in swapping and every situation is going to look a bit different.”

Fighting for win would make it awkward

McLaren’s decision has raised several questions about hypothetical scenarios that may crop up and give the team potential headaches further down the line, with 31 points separating Piastri and Norris with eight races to go.

When asked if he would have given up position had the McLaren pair been fighting for the lead, Piastri replied with a smile: “But it wasn’t… Wasn’t in that scenario.

“Would it have made it a bit more difficult? Probably yes. I don’t know if the outcome would have been different, but I’m not planning on finding myself in that position.”

Piastri also accepted that he did not “deserve” to finish ahead of Norris on a weekend his teammate was simply quicker.

“Ultimately the biggest thing for me from Monza was it was a weekend where I deserved to finish third,” he admitted.

“I didn’t deserve to finish second with the pace I had. I was quick at certain points but not quick enough the whole weekend and ultimately that’s my main takeaway from that.

“Mark [Webber, Piastri’s manager] is very much on the same page with that. I’ve discussed with the team and with Mark with what happened and we are all aligned going forward.”