F1 2025 - Previous Rounds

[DrZaius]

On reflection after a good night's sleep...

Should Lando have asked for the swap and/or McLaren requested it? No, slow pit stops are a part of racing. Difficult to imagine the request even being considered if the gap in the WDC was closer.

Yes, Lando did nothing wrong himself. But neither did Oscar. Of course, Lando finishing P2 ahead of Oscar would have been zero issue if the front left wheel gun did not malfunction for Lando's pit stop - and there would be no such request for a swap.

But Oscar is playing the long game. For the sake of a 6 point turnaround (far smaller than the 14 point difference between P1 and P2), he demonstrates he is a team player. Of course, plenty to play for and losing the WDC by a smaller margin than 6 points is a possibility, but Oscar knows he has the pace to win and he could very well need Lando's help in the future. He is undoubtedly not the favoured driver in McLaren, ignoring their request here would lead possibly even less favourable outcomes when they are battling for P1 in a race.

He has at least proven he wouldn't do a Lando in Hungary last year and sulk about it for a few laps before eventually yielding, so that already is a a major plus. Behind closed doors, I have little doubt Oscar is voicing his displeasure, but in public you have to be supportive of the decision - you win the WDC with team support, not in spite of it.

We move onto Baku with Oscar still having a 31 point lead and the majority of the F1 community on his side. Given the events of Saturday I think all of us here on BigFooty would have taken it, just that it has come about in a different way rather than a boring procession on Sunday.

“Oscar needs to play the team game” seems to be the last remaining straw that the cognitively dissonant or deliberate contrarians are clutching to.
We were told last season too that Oscar needed to play the team game, so when will Oscar yield the supposed fruits of playing the team game if not now at a point where he is 34 points ahead in the drivers championship in the latter part of a season?

 

[Festerz]

Planet F1 assessment of the Lando/Oscar team orders controversy. Fair to say they aren't happy with what unfolded and what it means for McLaren's credibility.

McLaren threw 'papaya rules' to the wind in Italian Grand Prix team orders call

A slow stop for Lando Norris resulted in McLaren requesting Oscar Piastri swap places in an absurd Italian GP decision.

www.planetf1.com

 

[FR0GGY]

Is it the reason Lando was booed on the podium?

 

[RWnBluey]

Now I was half asleep last night, but I’ve seen people saying Oscar was allowed to come in first as Norris allowed it, but it seemed like Lando wanted to see what Oscar’s side did first?

Lando was told to Box before he himself suggested that Oscar pit first to cover Leclerc who wasn’t actually an undercut threat. The only plausible reason I can see for this was Lando hoping for a SC and cheap stop.

 

[RWnBluey]

Is it the reason Lando was booed on the podium?

The Tofosi know what’s up

 

[FR0GGY]

Lando was told to Box before he himself suggested that Oscar pit first to cover Leclerc who wasn’t actually an undercut threat. The only plausible reason I can see for this was Lando hoping for a SC and cheap stop.

Or he wanted to see what Oscar did

 

[RWnBluey]

Or he wanted to see what Oscar did

what do you mean? I fail to see what purpose that would serve at that stage of the race.
They both needed to stop, they both were going to softs. There was no need to react to Oscar.

 

[Tiger_Of_Old]

Anyone have the ability to see the deltas between Oscar and Charles for those 3 or so laps prior to the pitstop?

Was Leclerc even closing? I don’t remember that occurring

Think they said Charles was only taking 30tenths out of the Mcls.

 

[FR0GGY]

what do you mean? I fail to see what purpose that would serve at that stage of the race.
They both needed to stop, they both were going to softs. There was no need to react to Oscar.

He might have wanted to cover Oscar incase they went different

 

[jb04]

Now I was half asleep last night, but I’ve seen people saying Oscar was allowed to come in first as Norris allowed it, but it seemed like Lando wanted to see what Oscar’s side did first?

They went into their shells being too reactionary that they almost forgot they needed to actually pit.

It's a good thing those mediums ended up lasting the distance. And lucky for them they have a car fast enough to allow them to dither and moan for the majority of the race waiting for someone else to do something.

 

[RWnBluey]

He might have wanted to cover Oscar incase they went different

Different what?

 

[FR0GGY]

Different what?

Tyres, max was going great guns on hards, the softs weren’t great for those that ran them early.
What if Oscar went hards, it would be crazy for Lando to go different to Oscar surely?

 

[RWnBluey]

They went into their shells being too reactionary that they almost forgot they needed to actually pit.

It's a good thing those mediums ended up lasting the distance. And lucky for them they have a car fast enough to allow them to dither and moan for the majority of the race waiting for someone else to do something.

McLaren held off for as long as possible as they knew a cheap SC stop was the only way to stay ahead of Max

 

[Duck Farmer]

Is it the reason Lando was booed on the podium?

They were saying Lan-dooooooooo

 

[RWnBluey]

Tyres, max was going great guns on hards, the softs weren’t great for those that ran them early.
What if Oscar went hards, it would be crazy for Lando to go different to Oscar surely?

There was only 8 laps left when they stopped. Both drivers were never going to take anything but softs at that stage of the race

 

[Tiger_Of_Old]

On reflection after a good night's sleep...

Should Lando have asked for the swap and/or McLaren requested it? No, slow pit stops are a part of racing. Difficult to imagine the request even being considered if the gap in the WDC was closer.

Yes, Lando did nothing wrong himself. But neither did Oscar. Of course, Lando finishing P2 ahead of Oscar would have been zero issue if the front left wheel gun did not malfunction for Lando's pit stop - and there would be no such request for a swap.

But Oscar is playing the long game. For the sake of a 6 point turnaround (far smaller than the 14 point difference between P1 and P2), he demonstrates he is a team player. Of course, plenty to play for and losing the WDC by a smaller margin than 6 points is a possibility, but Oscar knows he has the pace to win and he could very well need Lando's help in the future. He is undoubtedly not the favoured driver in McLaren, ignoring their request here would lead possibly even less favourable outcomes when they are battling for P1 in a race.

He has at least proven he wouldn't do a Lando in Hungary last year and sulk about it for a few laps before eventually yielding, so that already is a a major plus. Behind closed doors, I have little doubt Oscar is voicing his displeasure, but in public you have to be supportive of the decision - you win the WDC with team support, not in spite of it.

We move onto Baku with Oscar still having a 31 point lead and the majority of the F1 community on his side. Given the events of Saturday I think all of us here on BigFooty would have taken it, just that it has come about in a different way rather than a boring procession on Sunday.

This will only make Oscar more determined.

 

[Sandgroper007]

McLaren were never winning that race, unless Max made an error which is something Max doesn't do but the bollocks around the bad pitstop and "doing the right thing" handing the place back just makes our team look like mugs. Even Ferrari with their strategy call lunacy wouldn't be doing something that daft.

Stella and Brown need to sort their shit out, from Baku they just need to let Oscar and Lando race, no more of this swapping to do the right thing, they're competing against each other for this title, have McLaren realised that yet?

It almost felt like that call was made to make the social media teams day easier, less childish behaviour from Lando's "stans" on Twitter.

 

[Hawks1523]

After sleeping on it. I’m madder now thinking about the position swap than I was last night. What a joke of a call.

 

[royboy2]

I don't have an issue with the position swap. Had it been a straight race, Lando would have pit 1st, he gave Oscar the option to cover Leclerc, same as in Hungary last year where they pitted Lando 1st to cover Hamilton.

Had Norris pit 1st this time and the same thing happened, I agree it would be stiff shit, Oscar gets 2nd, Lando 3rd but not in this case.

 

[Sandgroper007]

It just creates needless attention and it's all people will be going on about for 2 weeks. I don't really know why they felt the need to "cover" LeClerc. Unless there was a Safety Car and he ran out of laps to overtake there's no way Charles keeps Oscar behind, even if Oscar had a poor stop.

 

[jb04]

McLaren were never winning that race, unless Max made an error which is something Max doesn't do but the bollocks around the bad pitstop and "doing the right thing" handing the place back just makes our team look like mugs. Even Ferrari with their strategy call lunacy wouldn't be doing something that daft.

Stella and Brown need to sort their shit out, from Baku they just need to let Oscar and Lando race, no more of this swapping to do the right thing, they're competing against each other for this title, have McLaren realised that yet?

It almost felt like that call was made to make the social media teams day easier, less childish behaviour from Lando's "stans" on Twitter.

This is the crux of it. We can agree, disagree, or fit somewhere in the middle but throughout 2025 this McLaren team has been caught with its pants down too often.

The optics of a team that is so outwardly indecisive and unsure is annoyingly frustrating. The bickering and soft**** nonsense that makes it to broadcast over radio is embarrassing.

The people responsible for this team winning the WCC are not on the pit wall on race day.

 

[Forward Press]

This is the crux of it. We can agree, disagree, or fit somewhere in the middle but throughout 2025 this McLaren team has been caught with its pants down too often.

The optics of a team that is so outwardly indecisive and unsure is annoyingly frustrating. The bickering and soft**** nonsense that makes it to broadcast over radio is embarrassing.

The people responsible for this team winning the WCC are not on the pit wall on race day.

I think this is the one thing Lando, Oscar or neutral supporters can agree on. They consistently make decisions that leave no one happy or needlessly antagonise one side of the pit wall.

Yes, the swap is technically fair - but that doesn't mean you have to do it. 'Papaya rules' may indeed apply ie let them race as long as you minimise the impact on the other driver - but the application is inconsistent.

It would be less frustrating for Oscar and his fans (us) if Lando won on sheer pace rather than favourable team decisions. But anyway, this is why we watch F1 I guess...

 

[Duck Farmer]

Why are you ignoring he would have been over cut if the stops were reversed and the same happened?

If the stops were reversed McLaren would've made Oscar serve a "voluntary" 5 sec stop-go penalty.

 

[Carn The Berries]

Don't even need to check this thread, I imagine the usual are spicy are about this swap.

Someone give me a summary tomorrow morning.

Check and Check.

Same posters would be blowing up deluxe if it was Oscar in front and the team didn't instruct Lando to let him back through in the same spot.

For the record, Dave Hughes thinks the same thing, that's the sort of deep, critical thinking we're dealing with here.

 

[Carn The Berries]

Oscars penalty in Silverstone was self inflicted (he broke the rules).
Landos issues today were not self inflicted, and only arose because the team broke normal protocol by pitting the 2nd car first and then stuffed up the pit stop.

Hope that helps

x 2

Glad to see there are actually some rational posters in this thread.