Max Verstappen supports Oscar Piastri, criticizing McLaren F1’s strategy to prioritize Lando Norris, amidst murky team directives.
Max Verstappen has duly noted the upcoming team orders at McLaren F1 to favor Lando Norris, though some scenarios remain unclear, such as when Oscar Piastri might need to cede a victory to his teammate.
Clearly, such orders do not help the reigning triple world champion preserve his crown while he maintains a 62-point lead at most until the end of the season against a very formidable McLaren team.
What does the Red Bull Racing driver think of these orders at his rivals? Is there a sense of disappointment?
“I’m not disappointed. At the end of the day, they do what they want. It’s not my problem, and I have my own issues at the moment with our car.”
“Of course, from Oscar’s side, he is closer to Lando than Lando is to me in the championship, but that’s something they have to manage.”
However, Verstappen has defended Piastri’s position after being asked if he was surprised that McLaren waited until now to make their decision.
“No, not surprised, because Lando and Oscar have never really been that far apart anyway, even in the championship.”
“Then, from Oscar’s side, you come in as a number one driver – they both are from what I understand – and I don’t think Oscar is the kind of driver who should be labeled as number two anyway.”
Is Red Bull Back on Track?
To save his title, Max Verstappen indeed prefers to rely on himself and especially his car. Have there been improvements to the RB20 since Monza in terms of the right path forward?
“We still have a lot of work to do. I think, in a way, Monza was positive to learn more about the car, and now it just takes time to improve the car and understand our weaknesses.”
“I think we have succeeded in that last aspect. It’s now about trying to find solutions. I’ve noted that it doesn’t happen in one or two weeks from when you understand your problems. But I hope that from now on, we can simply look forward and try to improve, and not regress more and more, like in Monza.”
“If we perform like at Monza, the title isn’t realistic,” Verstappen insisted. “We absolutely must be better than what we’ve been recently.”
“Again, if the balance is like in Monza… But I also know that we can do a better job overall, and if we understand our problems, if we can find a better balance with the car, then naturally we will be more competitive. But whether being more competitive will be enough, I don’t know.”
If Verstappen talks about a few weeks, it’s because a significant car upgrade is in preparation for Austin next month.
The championship leader also does not mark the Austin United States GP in his calendar as a guaranteed solution.
“It depends on how things go here and in Singapore, and how quickly we can react if we find something.”
Even though Verstappen and Perez are in top form in Baku, Dr. Helmut Marko, however, doubts it’s realistic to beat McLaren this weekend.
“If everything goes well for us, a podium may be possible. We finally need to find the balance with the car, which is particularly important here, where there are virtually no runoff areas. It should be better than in Monza, but real progress will only be made in Austin with the upgrades.”
However, he does not expect Verstappen to lose his composure if he fails to win on Sunday for the seventh consecutive Grand Prix weekend.
“No, because he has seen that people are now listening to him and that the issues are being taken seriously.”
“But for now, the car setup is still somewhat random, especially for Baku and Singapore. We have created a car that is extremely sensitive to the smallest changes.”
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Verstappen Defends Piastri in McLaren Drama Verstappen Defends Piastri in McLaren Drama
Verstappen acknowledges instructions at McLaren F1 and defends Piastri Verstappen acknowledges instructions at McLaren F1 and defends Piastri
