Piastri Gives His Honest Verdict On McLaren’s Team Orders After Having To Let Norris Pass.

Oscar Piastri started the third race of the season at Albert Park Circuit from P5- right behind his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who started the race from P3 after moving up a position due to Sergio Perez’s penalty.
He didn’t manage to overtake the 24-year-old on track. However, he found himself ahead of Norris on lap 15 because he stopped for a new set of tires five laps earlier and performed an undercut on his teammate.

Although Norris displayed a superior speed, he remained behind the Australian driver until lap 29, at which point Piastri was instructed by the team to allow the Briton to pass.   

“The citizens of Melbourne were displeased that their local hero had to make way for his teammate, however Piastri expressed to the press following the race that he believed it was the right decision.” 

“For me, it was completely fair. He qualified in front of me yesterday, he went a bit longer on the first stop, he was catching me and quicker at that point of the race.”

“At that point, I was keeping with Leclerc, and Lando was catching both of us. So I was honestly kind of hoping he’d pass me and go and get Charles. But yeah, I mean, that was completely fair.”

Norris then proved he was faster when he pulled a 12-second gap on the 22-year-old before the end of the race (although Piastri made a small mistake that contributed to the gap).

Nevertheless, McLaren wanted to catch up with Ferrari, and that didn’t happen in the end. Piastri emphasized that he still thought it was “completely fair” to let his teammate through under the given circumstances. He added:

Of course, at home, I would have loved to be able to stay in third but for me, it was completely fair. A couple of mistakes when it mattered, which is a bit frustrating. But today’s been a solid result.

“A little bit of an off at the end of the second stint, and I grained the tyres a little bit there as well. I just struggled a bit in that part of the race. Apart from that, it was a pretty strong day.”

Piastri is currently leading Norris by one point in the Drivers’ Championship, despite losing to his teammate at the Australian Grand Prix. He is currently in fifth place overall.