Piastri dismisses drama as Constuctors’ victory looms in Baku

The triumphs and trials of McLaren’s intra-team dynamic were the talk of the town on media day at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but Oscar Piastri moved quickly to dismiss any notion of lingering frustration as they take their first swing at confirming the Constructors’ Championship in Baku. 

A return to the gusty streets of Baku carries with it a host of fond memories for the Championship leader, with Piastri saying the moment he sealed his second career victory, with the skill of a driver well beyond his then-one and a half years of experience in Formula 1, boosted the Baku City Circuit “up my list after last year a little bit”. 

Playing a game of cat and mouse with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the 24-year-old produced one of his greatest outings to date — a level he’ll need to reproduce as McLaren’s intra-team preferential outline further revealed itself during the Italian Grand Prix. 

In a moment that could define the final results of the 2025 World Drivers Championship, a team error during Lando Norris’ pitstop saw the Brit sitting stationary for a painful 5.9 seconds in Monza, allowing Piastri to overtake his teammate for second place. 

It was a short-lived silver medal for the Australian, however, with McLaren team orders quickly being fed to an obedient Piastri, who relinquished his position to Norris, though it wasn’t without making note of prior discussions regarding slow pitstops as a part of racing. 

Holding firm on that opinion as he fronted the media in Azerbaijan, Piastri also revealed that the terms and conditions of McLaren’s racing rules have been redefined since the moment that placed McLaren CEO Zak Brown and McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella in the hot seat.

“Naturally, there’s been thoughts, yes, we’ve had good discussions with the team, you know, obviously a highly talked about moment,” the #81 said. 

“We’ve had a lot of discussions, clarified a lot of things, and, you know, we know how we’re going to go racing going forward, which is the most important thing, so what’s happened is done and I’m excited to get racing here.”

Piastri added: “I do still stand by it and that is kind of a decision we’ve made that a slow pit stop is a part of racing.” 

“Obviously, in the car at the time, the context wasn’t there about what else had happened in terms of the pit stop sequencing, so, again, it was decided that there was another factor for the reasoning in swapping.”

As for the fans’ reactions to the controversial moment, Piastri said he wasn’t surprised by the negativity online.

“I guess 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, so I’m not that surprised,” he responded.

“But I do think we have enough freedom to control our own destiny in the championship.”

The headline McLaren will hope to achieve this weekend is a much more exciting one for the Woking-based outfit, with the Constructors’ Championship within touching distance for the first time in 2025.

McLaren will secure its second consecutive title this weekend if the team obtains a lead of 346 points over the team in second place at the conclusion of Sunday’s race. 

More specifically, confirmation of the championship requires the team to outscore Ferrari by nine points in Baku, or alternatively, McLaren can erase  any doubt by finishing in first place, accompanied by either a second- or third-place finish.

With seven races left and sitting on 617 points while their closest competitor houses just 280 points, it has been a far calmer championship charge for McLaren compared to the neck-and-neck battle with Red Bull in 2024. 

“I think it’s very different because you know this year has just looked very different to last year,” Piastri said. 

“Last season went down to the final race and a pretty eventful final race as well, so I think this year it’s, you know, clearly the car has been a step better, the team has been performing very well, so there’s much more of a sense of inevitability about this year, which is an amazing position to be in. 

“It’s a testament to all the hard work from everyone at the team, and I’m the lucky guy that drives the car at the end of the day, so it’s a testament to everyone’s hard work and I’m very very proud of everyone.”

Playing it safe, once the Constructors’ Championship is inevitably sealed by McLaren, the rules of engagement between the two star drivers will remain in place, however, Piastri remained tight-lipped on specifics.

“I think we’ve again had a lot of discussions about how we want to go racing and a lot of that is to stay for us,” Piastri said. 

“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.”

Blocking out the noise and expectation surrounding the potentially historic weekend, Piastri analysed the characteristics of the Baku City Circuit itself.

“It’s a very unique track,” he said. 

“Obviously, very slow corners, long straights, no run-offs — well, there’s run-offs but you’ve got to do a U-turn to come back on. 

“So, just kind of the normal street circuit things, but then obviously with much heavier braking zones than normal. 

“You do have to build up — the grip level increases a lot through the weekend. 

“So, it’s a street circuit, but unlike other street circuits, you’ve really got to focus a lot on braking because you can win or lose a lot of time there, or brake or not brake a lot of parts on your car…”

Putting it to the test for the first time in 2025 — with a shower or two looming in Baku — Piastri will join his fellow drivers on track for the first practice session at 18:30 AEST on Friday.

Image: McLaren

2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Weekend Schedule (AEST):

Friday, September 19th:

FP1: 18:30 – 19:30

FP2: 22:00 – 23:00

Saturday, September 20th:

FP3: 18:30 – 19:30

Qualifying: 22:00 – 23:00

Sunday, September 21st:

Race: 21:00

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