Oscar Piastri will tell McLaren ‘my radio does not work’ if he receives one team order this season, Karun Chandhok says

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McLaren’s Monza team orders remained at the top of the agenda as Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris arrived at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Thursday. The two drivers continued to back the team.

As the beneficiary, Norris was naturally in favour of the decision. But Piastri, who had to give up second place, also said it was a fair instruction.

Norris was running ahead of his teammate and title rival before a slow pit stop swapped them around. Piastri initially told the team that they’d agreed this was ‘part of racing’, but he’d been allowed to come in first to cover off Charles Leclerc behind.

“I think we’re very aligned and ultimately, I respect the team’s decisions and trust that they’ll do their best to make the right ones,” Piastri said in the press conference before adding, “Ultimately, the biggest thing for me from Monza was, it was a weekend where I deserved to finish third. I didn’t deserve to finish second because of the pace I had.”

Karun Chandhok says there’s ‘not a chance’ Oscar Piastri would let Lando Norris through in Abu Dhabi

Speaking on Sky Sports F1’s ‘Paddock Uncut’ show in Baku, Karun Chandhok said Piastri complied with the Monza order to ‘keep the peace’ for the final eight races. His championship lead, reduced from 34 to 31, remains healthy.

While Piastri was ‘diplomatic’ in his Thursday media duties, Chandhok is ‘100% convinced’ that he would outright refuse to let Norris through in a title-decider scenario. There’s a strong chance that the gap is 25 points or fewer when they head to Abu Dhabi in December.

Chandhok says ‘any racing driver’ would take that stance. McLaren could seal the constructors’ title this weekend, and they may be more reluctant to interfere in the head-to-head thereafter.

“What I’m 100% convinced of – they didn’t really answer the question – is if it was Abu Dhabi, Oscar Piastri’s going to go, ‘Sorry, my radio does not work’,” Chandhok said. “He’s not going to give the place up. Of course not, why would he?

“Clearly, they’ve been to the diplomatic course before coming here, because they swerved the answer, but there’s not a chance any racing driver is going to give up the position if it’s any race.

“He’s done it now because they’ve still got another eight weekends where they’ve still got to work together and keep the peace, let alone into next year and the year after. If it becomes critical for the title, there’s not a chance.”

What would Lewis Hamilton do in Oscar Piastri’s situation?

The last time two teammates went to Abu Dhabi fighting for the title was 2016. That year, Lewis Hamilton was trying to snatch the championship away from Nico Rosberg.

In a recent interview, Rosberg recalled that Hamilton refused to follow Mercedes’ team orders at Yas Marina. The team ordered him to speed up rather than backing the German into the pack, and he sarcastically rebuffed them.

Juan Pablo Montoya says Hamilton would now follow orders if he were in Piastri’s position, but doubts he would have done so earlier in his career. It’s worth remembering that this is just the Australian’s third F1 season.

Asked about his old team McLaren on Thursday, Hamilton said: “It’s not a comfortable position [to battle your teammate for the title]… I can’t really comment on how theirs is going because I’ve not really been watching.

“I’ve been focusing on what we’ve been doing. So yeah, I think you just want to be able to race as soon as you can with whoever it is that’s out there.”