Oscar Piastri has confirmed that McLaren held a ‘very brief discussion’ about implementing team orders during the final two races of the 2025 season before deciding against making the Australian a number-two driver in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
The 24-year-old trails team-mate Lando Norris by 24 points heading into a pivotal sprint weekend at the Lusail International Circuit, although he is now tied with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for second after the Dutchman notched his sixth Grand Prix victory of the campaign in Las Vegas last time out.
McLaren would have been in a comfortable position this weekend, had it not been for a disastrous double disqualification last Sunday. Both Norris and Piastri’s cars were found to have experienced excessive plank wear, resulting in their exclusion from the final classification.
“We’ve had a very brief discussion, and the answer is no,” Piastri confirmed when asked about potential team orders to help Norris. “I’m still equal on points with Max and got a decent shot of still winning it if things go my way. That’s how we play it.”
Looking at the threat of the Dutchman, who has scored podiums in the last eight consecutive race weekends and out-scored Piastri in the previous seven Grands Prix, Piastri confessed that Verstappen’s presence complicates his comeback hopes.
“Ultimately, it’s never a good thing,” he added, addressing the disqualification. “Having the result we had, yes, it prevents me from losing those six points to Lando. It also brings Max much closer into the fight. Overall, it’s still a net negative. Obviously, just a pretty difficult weekend for the team and a painful ending.”
For Norris and the team, the double disqualification was not entirely unexpected. “There was some small expectation of it already, so it wasn’t a complete shock or out of nowhere,” the Brit confessed in Qatar.
“We were quite prepared for what the result could be, but I was quite fine. I left the track, we did our debrief, and we talked about what was good, what was not good and things we could improve on and be better for here, of course, one main thing.
“But otherwise, we treated everything very normally, and of course, it hurts as a lot of effort goes into every weekend from everyone, including myself, and it certainly made all that effort feel like it disappeared very quickly, but it is the same feeling for all of us.
“The mechanics, the engineers, myself, everyone in McLaren feels let down by what we had as a result, and we’re all disappointed, but actually, I found it quite easy to move on, have a few days off and come to this weekend, so I’m disappointed, of course, but it was fine.”
