Oscar Piastri ignored clear engineer request on way to stunning Azerbaijan Grand Prix win

Oscar Piastri took a hard-fought victory for McLaren at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but it wasn’t easy. In fact, it took some defiance of his race engineer to happen.

Speaking to the media in the post-Baku press conference, Piastri admitted that his engineer told him not to try overtaking Charles Leclerc… only for Piastri to make that race-winning move one lap later.

Oscar Piastri: That overtake “won me the race”

On lap 20 of 51 of the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix , Oscar Piastri pushed past polesitter and race leader Charles Leclerc in what proved to be the decisive move of the race. The McLaren driver held onto that front position despite growing pressure from Leclerc, Sergio Perez, and Carlos Sainz Jr.

Earlier in the week, McLaren announced its updated “papaya rules” would now place some bias toward Lando Norris in the Brit’s pursuit of the Formula 1 championship — but it was Piastri who was so dominant at Baku that Norris was instructed to support him instead.

“I think that ranks as probably my best win in my career,” Piastri said after the race.

“I think, you know, trying to soak up that pressure for so long in that race, that was, was incredibly tough.

“In the first stint when Charles was just pulling away pretty comfortably, I thought we were going to be second at best. Even Checo was keeping me very honest, and I could see Carlos was very quick at the end of the medium stint.”

On Lap 15, Norris held up Sergio Perez in order to give Piastri some breathing room, allowing the Australian to dip into the pits a lap later. Norris’ work was good enough that Piastri emerged in front of Perez; soon after, Piastri was able to use DRS on Alex Albon to pull himself out of the Red Bull driver’s clutches.

“I saw, saw an opportunity, or half an opportunity after the pit stop, and knew I had to try and take it,” Piastri said of the Lap 20 move that launched him into the lead of the race.

“I knew that getting to the lead was was going to be one thing. But I knew I had my work cut out for me after that to try and try and stay there because I didn’t feel like we were the quickest in that first stint, so it was very hard work.

“I think having clean air did help quite a bit. But, yeah, that for me has to be one of the best races I’ve done.”

Papaya rules may have worked in Piastri’s favor during this race — but that doesn’t mean the Australian driver obeyed every instruction coming at him from his team.

More conclusions from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix:

👉 Oscar Piastri’s win adds further complications to McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ enforcement

👉 What dry Oscar Piastri said in cooldown room about dramatic Perez v Sainz crash

The overtake on Leclerc is “what won me the race,” Piastri said — but he also admitted, “I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer.

“I basically tried to do that [same overtake] in the first stint and completely cooked my tires, so my engineer came on the radio and said, you know, let’s not do that again.

“And I completely ignored him the next lap and and sent it down the inside.”

Piastri was correct in feeling the urgency. After he got out in front, no one else led the race.

“I felt like trying to stay back and wait for Charles to deg was was never going to happen,” Piastri admitted.

“I had a similar opportunity in the first stint, and I felt like on lap two or three, I was, I think, just within DRS, but didn’t fully capitalize on that opportunity.

“I got the end of the straight thinking, if I had have done a couple of things a bit differently here, I maybe had a chance.

“So when I had a similar opportunity after after the pit stop, I had to take it and, yeah. I wouldn’t be sat here without that.”

Piastri insisted that if he didn’t make that move on Leclerc when he did, he may very well have never had another shot at the Ferrari driver.

In gentlemanly fashion, the winner also spared a few words of kindness for his in-race rival, saying, “Credit to Charles. He was incredibly fair.

“I think maybe he thought I was going to sail on into the runoff, but I was pleasantly surprised that I actually made the corner.”

At the end of the day, Piastri said, it was a “high risk, high commitment move — but that’s what I needed to try and win the race.

“I wasn’t really going to be that keen to finish second, so I had to try.”

It was a career-defining race for Piastri, though it may be one that’s more challenging to pull off later in the year. His McLaren teammate’s unusually poor qualifying due to a wayward yellow flag gave Piastri an opportunity to prove his skills — but it’s likely that McLaren will be determined to keep Lando Norris battling for the World Drivers’ Championship.

Read next: The lap-by-lap breakdown of a thrilling Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku