Max Verstappen says that if he had been Oscar Piastri in 2025 he would not have followed McLaren’s team orders, the world champion says in a look back at last season. The Australian was ordered during the Italian GP in Monza to move aside for Lando Norris after the Brit found himself behind his team-mate following a slow pit stop. According to Verstappen it sets the wrong precedent: “If you do that once without a clear reason, you sell your soul.”
It was one of the season’s hot topics: McLaren instructing Oscar Piastri to let Lando Norris through. The Brit had rejoined the circuit behind his team-mate because of a slow pit stop in Monza. The Australian complied with the call and ultimately finished the Italian GP behind Norris in third.
Max Verstappen told Swiss paper Blick he would never have obeyed that team order himself. “If you do that once without a clear reason, you sell your soul,” the world champion said. “The team can then do what it wants with you. And let’s not forget: Piastri was right in the middle of the title fight.”
The Australian was, at the time of the Italian GP, actually leading the championship — 24 points up on Norris and 104 ahead of Verstappen. The Red Bull driver ultimately whittled that gap down to two world-championship points at the Abu Dhabi GP, after Norris had already wrested the championship lead away from his team-mate. According to Verstappen, he would have sealed the title well before the final race had he been in a McLaren. “But I never really get involved in my rivals’ internal matters,” he adds. “I can always give them a combative answer on track.”
Sprint races
Verstappen ended up taking victory eight times in 2025, meaning he stood on the top step of the podium more often than the McLaren drivers. Both Norris and Piastri claimed seven wins each. In addition, the Dutchman triumphed twice in sprint races. He still isn’t a fan of the format. “The six sprints give me no joy at all,” Verstappen says. “Most of these unnecessary Saturday appearances were also dull. Worse still, they disrupt the normal preparation for our real race on Sunday. And something most fans forget: this constant workload is particularly stressful for the mechanics. In most teams they already operate in two shifts.”
