Brutal team orders could ruin rest of Oscar Piastri’s 2024 F1 season

Things could be about to take a dour turn for Australian F1 driver Oscar Piastri over the remaining eight races of the season.

McLaren’s team orders could ruin the rest of Oscar Piastri’s 2024 season. (Photo by Ferenc ISZA / AFP)

Things could be about to take a dour turn for Oscar Piastri over the remaining eight races of the 2024 Formula 1 season.

After a strategy blunder cost him his second win of the season at the Italian Grand Prix, Piastri may be facing the reality of being told to fall in line behind teammate Lando Norris.

Norris started the race from pole position, ahead of Piastri, but like he’s done countless times he failed to hold onto the lead of the race.

This time around it was Piastri who got the better of him with a daring move at the della Roggia chicane.

The move came despite talk during the week of McLaren favouring Norris over Piastri with a title race potentially on the cards.

“I don’t think Norris expected his teammate to do that!” Martin Brundle exclaimed on Sky Sports’ commentary.

“Team orders? What team orders?!” David Croft added.

Piastri went past his teammate on the opening lap. (Photo by Gabriel BOUYS / AFP)

Norris after finishing the race in third position wasn’t happy and didn’t hold back when discussing the opening lap overtake.

“I feel he got way too close for comfort,” Norris said to Sky Sports F1.

“We could both have easily been out in that first corner if I broke one metre later.”

Asked to expand on the incident, he said: “Oscar obviously braked on the limit and gave me space, there was just about enough. I did my best to avoid anything else happening at the time.

“At the same time, If I brake two metres later, you don’t know and you can’t predict, but it could easily have been a crash. It’s a tough one.”

Just a bit awkward after the race. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

In the wake of the race McLaren’s ‘Papaya Rules” came to the party with the team reportedly set to review the opening lap overtake.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown was asked to expand on what the so called team rules mean.

The papaya rules are: it’s your teammate, race them hard, race them clean, don’t touch,” Brown explained to Sky Sports. “That happened.”

But as he expanded further it became evident that the rules are shrouded in mystery with the team boss muddying the waters.

“It was an aggressive pass, so that’s a conversation that we’ll have,” he said. “It was a bit nerve-racking on pit wall.

“We’ll talk about that. I thought their start was great, and that was what we’d discussed, to get behind the other and fan out to make sure no-one else can get by.

“I think Lando was probably caught by surprise with that move thinking, ‘Let’s just tuck into a one-two and see if we can pull a bit of a gap’, so it’s something we’ll discuss internally.”

Zak Brown and McLaren will have their hands full. Clive Rose/Getty Images/AFP

Lando wasn’t too happy with his teammate. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

The comments from Brown were backed up by team principal Andrea Stella who made it clear the team would be looking to help Norris in coming races.

“We have now to acknowledge that not only the constructors’ championship is possible but — with the performance we have in the moment in the car, and some of the struggle we see with Red Bull — even the drivers’ is definitely possible,” Stella said.

“If we can achieve both, we need to put the team and Lando in position to pursue both championships.

“Lando is in the best position from a numbers point of view and we are fighting Max Verstappen. So if we want to give support to one driver we have to pick the one in the best position.”

While Piastri remained steadfast he had pulled off nothing more than a good overtake, the result could see him come off second best in the run home.

The Aussie shows no signs of backing away from the fight, but McLaren could force his hand and bring him into line as Norris looks to hunt down his Formula 1 championship crown.

With eight races remaining in the season the rest of the F1 world will be closely watching to see what unfolds and how the ‘Papaya Rules’ come to play.