Max Verstappen admitted that if he had been in Oscar Piastri’s situation at the Italian Grand Prix, he wouldn’t have agreed to swap positions. With the Italian Grand Prix now behind us—where Max Verstappen returned to winning ways with a dominant and, in some respects, unexpected performance heading into the weekend—another major talking point remains the position Oscar Piastri gave up to his teammate in the closing stages of the race.
Norris had initially asked the team to pit the Australian first, which they did, agreeing that if the undercut worked there would be a swap of positions.
The problem was that the Brit didn’t rejoin behind his teammate for that reason, but because of a slow pit stop that cost him precious seconds. At that point, Piastri found himself with an unexpected gift and the chance to gain three more points in the title fight.
Even though Piastri wasn’t at fault for what had happened, the pit wall still asked him to give up the position—a gesture of great sportsmanship that naturally sparked debate, given that the two are locked in a tight battle for the championship.
A detached spectator of the quarrel between the two McLaren drivers was
Max Verstappen, who initially laughed over the radio when he learned about the position swap, and was later asked after the race what he would have done in that situation.
Verstappen would not have swapped positions
At first, when asked what he thought about the incident, the Dutchman chose to dodge the question when speaking to GPblog: ''I know you guys want a fun answer on that, but it's not my problem. It's better not to talk about it.''
However, when pressed on the same topic by ServusTV, the four-time world champion revealed his true perspective, saying: “I wouldn’t have done that.”