By Megha Mallick,News18
Copyright news18
Formula One’s 2016 world champion, Nico Rosberg, has said that if he were in Oscar Piastri’s place and was asked to let his teammate pass through in the dying phase of a Grand Prix, he would have pulled the radio plug out of his ear and later told the team that he couldn’t hear their instructions.
On Sunday, September 7, with defending world champion Max Verstappen flying up the road and heading to a certain win, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella ordered a position swap, which he told the media was within the racing values that the team has in mind.
Piastri said, “I think today it was a fair request. Lando qualified ahead, was ahead the whole race… I am not going against the team.”
Although Piastri, the frontrunner for the driver’s championship this year, downplayed the incident, social media and certain experts claimed that it was McLaren’s clear favouritism for Lando Norris which made them take the call.
“Simon, I am an assassin. I would have pulled the radio plug and told them after the race: ‘Sorry, I didn’t hear you guys!’ I am just kidding, Simon. In fact, the first step is: is it clearly defined in the rules, yeah?” Rosberg said while speaking on Sky Sports.
“I would’ve pulled the radio plug!” ?
Nico Rosberg reacts to McLaren’s driver-swap order in Monza on this week’s F1 Show ? pic.twitter.com/reg4ValoBV
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) September 10, 2025
“I can tell you that it’s not defined in the Papaya rules because it’s not something that you can put down in a rule. It’s so hard because where is the cutoff point to that?” Rosberg asked.
“A lot of people will not like it, a lot of people will think it makes sense. I was happy they did that because with my hat that I have on, I want a super-exciting Formula 1 championship until the very end,” Rosberg added.
