Piastri unsurprised by Monza backlash: ‘Fans jump on controversy’

Formula 1 championship leader Oscar Piastri has shrugged off the storm that followed McLaren’s controversial team orders at the Italian Grand Prix, saying he wasn’t surprised by the backlash and insisting both he and teammate Lando Norris remain in charge of their own title fight.

Last time out, Monza served up a McLaren masterclass with a side of drama. Piastri and Norris were cruising toward a tidy second- and third-place finish behind Red Bull’s untouchable Max Verstappen when McLaren pulled a bold move.

With Norris’s blessing, the team pitted Piastri first to fend off Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. But a sluggish pitstop for Norris flipped the script, dropping him behind his teammate and title rival. McLaren, citing a similar scenario from last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix where Piastri played second fiddle, asked the Australian to let Norris pass.

The move triggered criticism from fans and even rival bosses, but Piastri said he saw it coming.

“Am I surprised? Not really”

“I do think we have enough freedom to control our own destiny in the championship,” Piastri told reporters ahead of this weekend Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.

“There’s no right answer to that decision. If we had done the opposite thing, then you’d have the opposite half of the fans saying that that was wrong and vice versa. So ultimately there’s no correct decision.

“Am I surprised [by the backlash]? Not really. I guess it’s a big moment from the race and I feel like a lot of fans are quite quick to jump on things that are deemed controversial, so I’m not that surprised.”

Piastri didn’t shy away from self-reflection either, admitting that standing on the third step of the podium at the end of the day was where he deserved to be.

“Ultimately, my biggest takeaway from Monza was that on pace and my own performance that weekend I didn’t deserve to finish higher than third, regardless of what else happened in the race,” he said.

Pitstop Debate Settled

Piastri confirmed McLaren has clarified its stance for the rest of the season, ruling that slow pitstops will be treated as part of racing.

“Still, he maintained he would back the team’s approach if Monza’s scenario ever repeated.

“That is a decision we’ve made, that a slow pitstop is a part of racing,” he explained. “In Monza there was another factor outside of the slow pitstop, being the order we pitted in, that was a contributing factor to why we swapped.

“In exactly the same scenario then, yes, I would expect it to be the same, but I think the likelihood is virtually impossible.

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

Keeping Strategy In-House

While fans and pundits continue to chew over Monza, Piastri insisted that McLaren’s internal discussions have left no room for confusion between himself, Norris, or the pit wall.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions about how we want to go racing and a lot of that is to stay for us,” he said.

Read also:

• Palmer: McLaren’s Monza team orders will ‘weigh heavily’ on Piastri

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

With McLaren’s trust and his own steely focus, Piastri is proving that, at the very least, he’s got the chops to handle both the racing and the drama.

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