- Lando Norris fans criticise Oscar Piastri for his opportunistic decision
- Some believe Australia is jeopardizing Norris’s hopes of winning the F1 title
- Norris said Piastri’s controversial move was “too close”
Australian F1 star Oscar Piastri has come under fire from Lando Norris fans after the McLaren star stunned his British teammate at the Italian Grand Prix.
Piastri put in another excellent race overnight, finishing second behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, while Norris completed the podium in third.
McLaren were well positioned to control the race, but Piastri appeared to surprise Norris by passing him on the first lap.
From there, the 23-year-old spent much of the race in the lead, but a bold one-stop strategy by Ferrari saw Leclerc snatch victory from the Australian.
After the race, many Norris fans criticised Piastri for jeopardising his teammate’s chances of catching Max Verstappen.
“The race should have ended after the first corner, Piastri’s manoeuvre ended up completely compromising the team. An easy one-two finish is over,” posted a fan on X.
“Just today they showed us that Oscar is a (rat emoji),” another replied.
“You guys need to kill this team. You’re throwing away an easy world championship for Norris,” posted a third.
Oscar Piastri has been criticised for a first-lap move to take the lead at the Italian Grand Prix
Piastri seemed to surprise Lando Norris by overtaking him on the first lap.
Norris admitted after the GP that he was surprised by Piastri’s move on lap 1.
“A bit[surprised]. Obviously I would have braked a bit later if I had needed to. We had a big gap behind and between the two cars there is no risk,” Norris told Sky Sports F1.
‘I feel like he got too close for my comfort; we could easily have both been left in that corner if I had braked a metre later.
“Obviously, if I could do things again, I would do them slightly differently, but it is what it is. Oscar had a good race and so did Charles.”
Piastri insisted that he made a fair play.
“Then I left and managed to get around the outside area,” he said.
‘There wasn’t really much more to it than that.
‘We both came away unscathed. I knew that once I hit the brakes, I got a little bit ahead and I knew I had the right to stay on the outside.
“For 38 laps, I was in a position to win the race. So it was a good first lap.”
Asked if McLaren’s strategy was flawed, Piastri admitted that it was.
“In retrospect, yes. But we are all legends on Monday or after the race, but today we made a mistake, and I myself was a big part of that,” he said.
“We had everything to lose and Charles tried something a little different as he was going to finish third anyway.”
Piastri insisted he made a clean move and was not overly aggressive.
Despite the extra stop, Piastri came close to making up time, but was caught by Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll.
“I basically asked myself right away what pace I needed to do to go after Charles and the pace I needed was basically what I did for the first few laps,” Piastri said.
‘At that point I was pretty optimistic, but I lost a good amount of time to Carlos. Stroll was driving like it was his first karting race. I don’t know what was going through his head when he saw the blue flag. That cost him another second.
“I needed that stint to be perfect to win that race and those little details are what ultimately made us lose some chances. It would have been a risky bet anyway, but I was certainly not far from being able to achieve it.”