Oscar Piastri has revealed that McLaren’s controversial team orders decision in Monza was weighing on his mind during the Azerbaijan GP weekend, the race where his world championship momentum began to plummet.

In Monza McLaren ordered Piastri to let teammate Lando Norris overtake after a slow pit stop allowed the Australian to jump the Briton in the closing stages of the race. Piastri did what he was told, but expressed his issue with the decision over the team radio: "We said a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don't know what has changed."

The next weekend in Azerbaijan, Piastri had what he described as his ‘worst weekend in racing’ as he crashed in qualifying, jumped the race start, dropped the car into anti-stall as he fell to the back of the grid and crashed out of the race - all without completing a single lap.

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'Worst weekend in racing'

Addressing his Azerbaijan GP weekend on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Piastri said: “It’s ultimately a combination of quite a few things.

"Obviously, the race before that was Monza, which I didn't feel was a particularly great weekend from my own performance - there was obviously what happened with the pit stops.  

“But then also in Baku itself, Friday was tough, things weren't working, I was overdriving, I wasn't very happy with how I was driving, and ultimately probably trying to make up for that a little bit on Saturday."

He added: “There was just a lot of little things that eventually kind of added up.

Piastri crashed out of the Sprint in Brazil - Photo: Race Pictures

Piastri finished: “There's no beating around the bush, that was the worst weekend I've ever had in racing, but probably the most useful in some ways.”

The Dutch GP in August was Piastri's last race win and, ever since, he has failed to finish ahead of either Norris or Max Verstappen in a Grand Prix.

It's a timeframe in which he has seen a once 34-point championship lead turn into a 24-point deficit to Norris with just three weekends remaining.

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