F1 News
Brown sheds light on team orders to Piastri: 'He made a mistake'
During the Australian Grand Prix, having gotten past Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri seemed poised to take the challenge to his teammate, at the time in lead, however Tom Stallard, the Australian's race engineer came on the radio to tell his driver to hold position when he seem ready to pounce on his British teammate. McLaren's CEO, Zak Brown, now reveals the logic behind the team order.
After Red Bull Racing's Verstappen, locked up going into Turn 11 and went wide on the exit, Piastri got by him and set his sights on teammate Norris. After hunting him down relentlessly he finally got within DRS range of the British driver. However, much to the surprise of many fans and experts, a team radio was picked up, ordering Piastri to hold position.
Was it the fear of a potential mistake, or collision? After the race, Brown addressed the inquiries on the subject to media present at the paddock in Melbourne, including GPblog.
'Piastri made a mistake and fell back'
"I don't think that had anything to do with it. Actually, Andrea (Stella, McLaren team principal, ed.) and I on the pit wall just kind of released them to go racing," said Brown. "We just wanted to make sure we cleared the traffic so that was the 'hold for a moment.'
"Then [it] looked like he dropped a wheel and then fell back [to] a bit of a gap. I just think they were pushing really hard in very tricky conditions," concluded the American CEO.
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