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Oscar Piastri makes mockery of own team as Aussie puts F1 world on notice with stunning win

The Australian driver has revealed he 'completely ignored' a suggestion from his engineer.

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·5-min read

Oscar Piastri has made a mockery of his team's decision to prioritise Lando Norris as he chases an F1 world title, with the Aussie winning the second race of his career in Azerbaijan on Sunday. Piastri revealed after the race he also defied a suggestion from his engineers to be more patient, and the decision proved a masterstroke.

McLaren revealed last week that they would given Norris priority ahead of Piastri for the remainder of the season, with the British driver a better chance to catch Max Verstappen in the championships. But that decision appeared to backfire as Norris had a disastrous day in qualifying on Saturday and Piastri ended up on the front row.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri (R) claimed his second career F1 victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Lando Norris (far left) fell back. Image: Getty

And Piastri made a complete mockery of the call as he won a dramatic Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday to send McLaren ahead of Red Bull in the constructors championship. The race ended with a virtual safety car after a late collision between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez on the penultimate lap as they fought for third place.

Piastri showed incredible skill and courage to overtake pole-sitter Charles Leclerc before holding off the Ferrari driver for the final 31 laps on "the most stressful afternoon" of his life. The 23-year-old delivered a defensive driving masterclass to constantly frustrate and repel Leclerc's charges, before eventually pulling away in the last few laps as the Ferrari's rear tyres degraded.

"I felt like we had a little bit of extra grip and I had to go for it because I knew that if I didn't get past at the start of the stint that I was never going to get past," said Piastri, who narrowly avoided hitting the wall at the end of the risky manoeuvre on lap 20. "I went for a pretty big lunge and managed to pull it off and hang on for dear life for the next 35 laps."

Piastri later revealed he ignored calls from race engineer Tom Stallard to be patient before making his race-winning lunge to overtake Leclerc. The Australian was implored by his team not to burn through his tyres, but went against the pleas to overtake Leclerc.

“I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer because I basically tried to do that in the first stint and completely cooked my tires,” he said. “My engineer came on the radio and said, ‘Let’s not do that again,’ basically, and I completely ignored him the next lap and sent it down the inside. It’s what won me the race.”

Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and George Russell.
Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and George Russell on the podium after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. (Photo by Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images)

Piastri admitted he didn't see how being patient would have benefited him. “I think at that point I felt like trying to stay back and wait for Charles to deg was never going to happen,” he explained. “I thought he was just going to secure us P2.

“A similar opportunity [came] in the first stint. I felt like on lap two or three I was just within DRS but didn’t fully capitalise on that opportunity. I got to the end of the straight thinking, ‘If I had have done a couple of things a bit differently here, I maybe had a chance.’ So when I had a similar opportunity after the pit stop, I had to take it.

“[The move] was a high-risk, high-commitment … but that’s what I needed to do to try and win the race, because I wasn’t really going to be that keen to finish second.”

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The 25 points he secured helped send McLaren above Red Bull in the championship for the first time in 10 years. “It’s not just down to me,” he said. “We’ve had a car that’s been very quick and consistently quick in a lot of places, and even if we’ve not necessarily been the outright quickest everywhere, we’ve been in with a chance everywhere.

“Today was definitely one of those days where we weren’t necessarily the quickest, but we had a car that could put us in the fight. We had a pit stop that could put us in the fight. We had some teamwork that put us in the fight, and it all managed to pay off.

“I feel like I’ve been driving well. It’s been clicking a bit more for me this year in terms of the things I want to work on from last season. Combine that with a car that’s capable of winning, and results like this are possible.”