Oscar Piastri's stern 4-word reply to McLaren's team orders that stopped him from overtaking Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri seemed disappointed after McLaren ordered him to hold his position in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. He charged towards the race leader and his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, in Lap 29 of the race when the Grove-based team applied the Papaya rules and asked him to hold position and stay in P2.

Piastri started the race from P2 after a decent qualifying effort on Saturday. He was eight-hundredth of a second slower than Norris, who was on pole. Even though the man from Land Down Under started from P2, he lost the position to Max Verstappen in the initial stage of the race.

However, Piastri slotted back to P2 after Verstappen made a mistake and began closing his gap to Norris. In Lap 29 of 57, he was at a touching distance of his British teammate, and this was when the Zak Brown-led team asked Piastri to "hold position."

Reacting to the order, here's how he reacted on the radio:

"I'm faster but OK."

As ordered, Oscar Piastri stayed back in P2 and fell back. A few laps later, McLaren again told the Australian driver that he was free to race. By the time the second order came, he was almost three seconds behind Norris.

As the #81 driver began charging at Norris again, it started raining. Piastri, who was with slick tires, skidded and spun to the grass. The Australian stayed stationary for nearly a minute and then made it back to the track again.

Piastri went to the pit lane for intermediates and came out at the back of the pack. Thanks to the mighty MCL39 underneath him, he was able to cover a lot of ground and, in the end, came home in P9. Lando Norris, however, won the race ahead of Max Verstappen of Red Bull.

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Oscar Piastri summed up his Australian Grand Prix race

Following the 2025 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne, Oscar Piastri shared his thoughts. Speaking about this in the post-race interview, he said that even though he had a good pace and performance, he had nothing to show for it.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 16: Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL39 - Source: Getty

"Given I was trying to reverse for a minute, we made the right decisions," Piastri said. "There was much more on the table than P9 today, so it is a shame to not have that result. For me, the big positive is the other 56 laps of the race, I felt I had really strong pace in all conditions and that is what I will try and take from this weekend.

"It's obviously pretty disappointed at the moment. I feel like for every lap bar one I drove an incredibly strong race and don't have anything to show for it. I don't have anyone to blame but myself, a bit unfortunate to get stuck like I did but I put myself there," he further added.

The Papaya rule was blatantly obvious last season as McLaren ordered its drivers to hold position multiple times. However, a section of fans was surprised to see it being executed in the very first race of this season.