Karun Chandhok thinks Oscar Piastri avoided the same mistake Lewis Hamilton made at McLaren with team orders stance

Follow us on Google Discover

McLaren’s double podium finish at the Italian Grand Prix was overshadowed by team orders after a mistake during the pit stops.

The team elected to pit Piastri first to cover off a potential threat from Leclerc, who was charging towards the end of the race on hard tyres having stopped first of the leaders.

When they pitted Norris a few laps later, the front left wheel gunman was slow fitting his tyre, which cost him crucial seconds and a place to Piastri.

McLaren would orchestrate a swap of positions a lap later, with Piastri’s engineer, Tom Stallard, referencing what happened at the Hungarian GP last season.

Piastri felt slow pit stops were “part of racing” but obliged when asked to move over, with the pair re-establishing the order and Norris leading his title rival home in second and third.

Much has been said about how McLaren handled the situation between the two drivers, but Karun Chandhok highlighted on Sky Sports F1 (15:43 07/09) an important point that Piastri made when speaking to the media after the race.

Karun Chandhok thinks Oscar Piastri avoided unwanted tension in McLaren

McLaren have a history of intra-team battles going sour, famously the fallout between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

Most recently, it was with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, with the latter previously highlighted for stoking their intra-team rivalry by ignoring team orders at the 2007 Monaco GP.

Chandhok believes Piastri has avoided any tension by obeying the team orders, despite McLaren having already effectively wrapped up the Constructors’ Championship.

“Oscar made a really good point about the mechanics, because what you have to remember is you have two cars. You have mechanics on Oscar’s car and on Lando’s car, but they all come together for a pit stop,” said Chandhok.

“You don’t want a mechanic who normally works on Oscar’s car to have cost Lando a position. That creates intra-team tension and an odd dynamic within the team.

“I fully understand why McLaren did what they did, because as I said, the Constructors’ Championship is sewn up and they want to keep a healthy and harmonious atmosphere between the engineering groups and the mechanics.”

Why is McLaren using team orders between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris?

McLaren are over 300 points ahead of nearest rivals Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship, but they are keen to ensure the battle between Norris and Piastri is fair.

It’s important not to create any tension between a strong driver pairing, which was evident last season when Norris was told to move over for Piastri in Hungary, enabling the Australian to achieve his first Grand Prix victory.

Later in the season, Piastri repaid the favour by allowing Norris to win the Brazilian GP Sprint race to catch up to Verstappen in the title battle.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has been clear about the relationship between Norris and Piastri, with the team keen to preserve it going forward as they look to achieve more titles in the years to come.