Oscar Piastri Given a Lesson in Being Teammates After Gutsy Move On Lando Norris

McLaren has finally emerged as a proper championship contender after spending more than a decade behind the three big teams. However, they are not making the required decisions to win the championship. The team lets their drivers race each other despite Lando Norris being much closer in the title hunt.

It was evident from the way Oscar Piastri overtook Norris on the opening lap of the Italian GP. The move ultimately compromised their races and allowed Ferrari to snatch the victory. Former Ferrari manager Peter Windsor has said that Piastri is not doing what an ideal teammate should be doing.

In a conversation on the Cameron F1 podcast, Windsor highlighted how, after getting a decent launch, Norris would not have expected such an aggressive move from his teammate..

“I don’t think Lando made any mistake at all,” Windsor explained. “He’d got through the first corner… he came into the second chicane, nothing’s up to temperature yet… it’s a very narrow breaking area there, what do you do?”

“You know your teammate’s behind you and he’s not going to do anything stupid… There’s absolutely no way a teammate should have tried what Oscar did on Lando Norris if it was a team correctly managed.”

However, Windsor did also acknowledge that you can’t fully blame Oscar Piastri for wanting to win if the team is telling him he’s free to race Norris.

Windsor blames McLaren for not telling Piastri to take it easy on Norris

This was the second front-row lockout for McLaren in 2024 after Hungary. And something similar happened in that race as well. Piastri overtook Norris on lap one and went on to win the race, taking away crucial 7 points from his teammate.

McLaren has been facing backlash for not supporting their main contender in the driver’s championship. However, the Woking squad remains firm on following the ‘papaya rules’ and that is why Windsor thinks Piastri can’t be blamed for racing his teammate hard.

Windsor explained how Piastri was fighting Norris as if he were a driver from a rival team. “You know, Oscar did that pass as if Lando was in a Ferrari or a Mercedes that’s the point, and you can’t really blame him if nobody at Mclaren has said to him [to] take it easy on the opening lap,” he remarked.

With 62 points separating Norris and Verstappen in the title fight and 8 races to go, it will be interesting to see if McLaren will stick with their philosophy of letting the drivers race or if they will start prioritizing Norris.