Oscar Piastri told to consider harsh McLaren move that would cause 'heavy damage'

Johnny Herbert has suggested that Oscar Piastri might need to consider rejecting McLaren's team orders if the gap to Lando Norris continues to close - a move that would cause 'heavy damage' to the team dynamic, but that could help deliver a maiden Drivers' Championship title.

Piastri benefitted from team orders during the 2024 season when team-mate Norris handed back the lead of the Hungarian Grand Prix in the closing laps following an unintentional undercut from the McLaren pit wall. However, in Monza, the roles were reversed, with the Australian forced to back down from second place after a slow pit stop fed Norris, who had been ahead of his team-mate throughout the Italian Grand Prix, out behind Piastri's rear wing.

Piastri obliged, but according to Herbert, neither his legendary former Benetton team-mate, Michael Schumacher, nor reigning world champion Max Verstappen would have done the same thing, had they been in his position.

"Let me throw a curveball in," he told Adventure Gamers. "If we didn't have what happened in Zandvoort, how would Oscar play that one? It comes down to the selfishness of the driver and how much you want to have that World Championship.

"In my head, if I had that trophy on my mantelpiece at the end of the year and the team had got rid of me because I had not followed orders, I'd rather have that trophy on that mantelpiece and lose my drive. That's what we race for. We race to win that World Championship.

"Then the whole dynamic changes from within the driver. Following orders could lose me the world championship. So, do I play the game, or do I play my game, my selfish game? Max, I think, would probably play hard, and so would Michael Schumacher.

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"It can cause very heavy damage in effect. McLaren are trying to make it as fair as they possibly can, but racing is racing. Racing is not always kind. When I was racing, there was a team, but we were the drivers.

"And it was almost handed over to us to do what we could. Sometimes it went right, sometimes it went wrong. Team orders now are not the pure racing, and I think that's what Oscar would say."

Heading into this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Piastri leads the Drivers' Championship standings by 31 points. Norris has finished ahead of his team-mate in four of the last six races, but his Australian counterpart's consistency makes him a daunting title rival - the 24-year-old has only finished off the podium once in the last 15 races.