Oscar Piastri casts clear McLaren team orders verdict as Lando Norris title push looms

Oscar Piastri believes it is too early for him to be asked to move aside for Lando Norris despite the latter attempting to close the gap to championship leader Max Verstappen.

McLaren’s surge in form has seen Norris move to within 70 points of Verstappen who earlier in the season looked like a certain four-time World Champion. But with the team facing criticism for not moving Piastri aside in order to help Norris, the Australian believes there are too many points on the table for that to be the case.

Oscar Piastri goes against McLaren team order suggestion

McLaren’s decisions were first questioned during the Austrian sprint race where Piastri, who capitalised on Norris’ battle with Verstappen, was able to move past his team-mate and into P2. Piastri then went on to finish the race second with Norris a place behind.

Then in Hungary, Piastri again got the better of Norris and after the team’s decision to call Norris in first, they then asked him to move aside to allow Piastri to retake the lead and ultimately win his first race.

But with nine races to go, Piastri, who is 116 points behind Verstappen, believes it is too early for the team to be considering one driver over the other.

“I’m still going into the weekends to try and win the races,” he told media including PlanetF1.com in Monza. “We are still behind in the Constructors’ Championship and we want to make sure that we win that and my best contribution to that is by trying to win the race.

“I think the gap is still very big between Lando and Max, and for myself, it’s even bigger to Max but it’s not impossible. We will take it on a case by case basis and every weekend, of course, if the gap gets significantly smaller, and I’m not so much in the picture then I’m aware that I could be called upon to try and help out.

“But I think with the gap, how it is at the moment, it’s still very, very early for that. And ultimately, I want to go out and win races as well. But I know that if I do get called then I’ll be happy to help out.”

Oscar Piastri highlights Andrea Stella input behind McLaren surge

The fact that a potential push for both titles is even being considered demonstrates how far McLaren have come in a relatively short space of time and when pressed on what the biggest contributing factor to that improvement has been, Piastri had one name in mind.

“I think if I was to choose one, [it would be] Andrea’s leadership and everything that covers,” the 23-year-old said.

“Getting the most out of the people that we have. We’ve brought in some new people, but I think the biggest thing has been getting the most out of the people that we already have.

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“Clearly they had a lot of potential that Andrea, alongside the rest of the team, was able to unlock. Collectively, I think that’s been the biggest thing.

“I think we started the year with a competitive car. It was just that the field was so tight that being a couple of tenths off, like we see now, is the difference between winning the race and finishing seventh or eighth, which is where we were in some races.

“And I think with the stuff we put on in Miami, we sort of found those few tenths and it vaulted us all the way up the front so we didn’t suddenly find some magical gift or anything like that. It’s just been hard work, improving the car, improving the people and the execution.”

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