Piastri insists McLaren ‘know how we’re going to go racing going forward’ following Monza team order debate

Oscar Piastri has voiced his “trust” in McLaren’s handling of the battle for the Formula 1 Drivers’ title, after being ordered to allow team mate Lando Norris past at Monza.

McLaren sparked debate at the Italian Grand Prix when instructing Piastri to allow his title rival past for second place following a slow pit stop for Norris – this after the latter had suggested Piastri stopped first to prevent an unlikely undercut from Charles Leclerc.

Prior to this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, McLaren discussed their ‘papaya rules’ – the team's code for their rules of engagement on track – with both drivers said to be “aligned” on racing scenarios going forward.

“Naturally, there have been thoughts, yes,” said Piastri. “We’ve had good discussions with the team.

“Obviously, it’s a highly talked about moment, but we’ve had a lot of discussions, have clarified a lot of things, and we know how we’re going to go racing going forward, which is the most important thing. What’s happened is done, and I’m excited to go racing here.”

To this point, McLaren have maintained a focus on sealing the Teams’ Championship for a second year running, an achievement which could be sealed this weekend with a record-breaking seven events to go.

Pressed on whether he expects less interference from the pit wall after this consideration is out of the way, Piastri added: “Not necessarily because of the Constructors’ Championship.

“But I think we’ve had a lot of discussions about how we want to go racing and a lot of that is to stay for us, because ultimately, if we give out that information, then we become very easy targets to pick off because everyone knows what we’re going to do. That’s all very aligned with all of us, but stays in-house.”

While unwilling to detail wider scenarios, points-leader Piastri did confirm an expectation that papaya rules would be invoked should the McLaren pairing find themselves in “exactly the same scenario”.

Conceding a belief that he didn’t deserve to finish higher than third given his pace across the weekend, Piastri had an element of sympathy for his team, highlighting how the on-track scenario put McLaren between a rock and a hard place.

“If we had of done the opposite thing, then you’d have had the opposite half of the fans saying that it was wrong. Ultimately, there’s no correct decision in that,” he said.

“Am I surprised? Not really. Obviously, 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. I’m not that surprised, but I do think that we have enough freedom to control our own destiny in the championship.”

Offering his take on the situation later in the day, and whether there have been any discussions regarding what would happen in a decisive championship situation, Norris added: “We discuss all of these things. It’s not something we need to finalise now. Of course, it was a talking point. It was all we ever heard from every person doing our interviews [at Monza].

“It’s something that was brought up, it’s something we all spoke about as a team, we all have a very good understanding of, and all accept it. We’re happy. We’ll continue working the way we want, and that’s what we need to do.”