Oscar Piastri earns “huge credit” at McLaren for “very powerful” team orders gesture

Former F1 team manager Peter Windsor believes Oscar Piastri was wise to obey McLaren’s team order request at the Italian Grand Prix.

Piastri got ahead of teammate Lando Norris after a slow stop for his title rival.

Unusually, McLaren decided to stop Piastri first, despite no serious threat from Charles Leclerc behind.

A slow pit stop for Norris, due to a delay on the front-left tyre, meant he rejoined behind his F1 title rival.

Norris had been running ahead of Piastri for the entire race, leading McLaren to intervene.

Piastri followed the team order, surrendering second, and losing three points in his quest for the F1 title.

Speaking on the Cameron CC YouTube channel, Windsor felt that Piastri wouldn’t have obliged had it been for the race win.

“The big difference is this wasn’t for the lead,” Windsor said. “As I said in the video yesterday, if Max Verstappen was dicing Yuki Tsunoda for most of the race, down in 14th place or something and the lead had been Lando Norris from Lap 1 and Oscar behind him, and this had happened, and then they said ‘will you slow down and give the win to Lando please’.

“What do you think Oscar Piastri would have said? Exactly. No chance at all but because it was P2/P3, who really cares. It wasn’t a win.”

‘Credit in the bank’ for Piastri

The 2025 Italian Grand Prix wasn’t the first time McLaren have used team orders.

Piastri’s maiden F1 grand prix victory was overshadowed by team orders.

Norris was forced to give up the win in Hungary after taking the lead through the pit stop phase, despite running behind Piastri at the time.

Piastri let Norris win the Sao Paulo sprint race last year, but the favour was returned in the Qatar sprint later that year.

Windsor believes Piastri’s decision to follow team orders will stand him in good stead for the rest of the season.

“It will earn Oscar a lot of favours in the team, for sure,” Windsor added. “He did a favour. It’s a bit like giving Lando the sprint win in Brazil.

“It was a favour that didn’t mean very much but will earn him a lot of kudos and credit in McLaren because he might need something from Lando going into the rest of the season.

“He gave away something that was innocuous. He’s got a lot of credit now in the bank as a result and Lando can’t complain about him at all. Actually, it was a very powerful thing for Oscar to do to be honest. I think Lando is probably pleased, probably a bit embarrassed by it all.”