Jacques Villeneuve has called out McLaren for showing “weakness” at Imola, saying the team appeared to be “afraid” of going against Oscar Piastri with team orders after the restart.

Although Piastri lined up on pole position at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, he was trailing Max Verstappen by the end of the first lap after the Dutchman swooped past him at Tamburello to take the lead.

Are McLaren ‘afraid’ to go against Oscar Piastri?

Pushing hard to stay with Verstappen, the championship leader’s tyres wore and he was into the pits on Lap 13 for a new set of hard tyres, dropping him to 11th place.

While he overtook one driver after another at the Tamburello chicane, working his way back towards the front, Verstappen ran a long first stint and was given a cheap pit stop when the VSC came out for Esteban Ocon’s stricken Haas.

Piastri also pitted, his second stop of the afternoon, and was P4 in the pecking order behind Verstappen, Lando Norris and Alex Albon, the McLaren driver making short work of the Williams. He was, however, 30 seconds down the road from Verstappen.

Verstappen’s lead was negated on Lap 46 when Kimi Antonelli stopped on track, which brought out the Safety Car. Verstappen pitted as too did Norris, the latter dropping behind Piastri who didn’t stop as he didn’t have tyres available.

Lining up for the restart, Norris told McLaren: “I see Oscar’s tyres are pretty dead. If we want any chance of going for the lead, we know what to do.”

More from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

👉 Imola GP conclusions: Verstappen’s Piastri lesson, McLaren’s fear, Tsunoda’s wobble

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

The team opted not to do anything and by the time Norris overtook Piastri to run second, he was over six seconds down on Verstappen who scampered off to claim the race win ahead of the McLaren team-mates.

Villeneuve says it was “weakness” from McLaren not to issue team orders as they cost themselves a shot at the victory.

“They show weakness basically,” the Sky F1 guest pundit said at Imola. “They don’t show the strength that Red Bull are always showing, year after year.

“It’s as if they’re afraid to be aggressive in trying to win the Drivers’ Championship, and they’re afraid to go against Piastri, which is really, really odd.

“Piastri messed up that first corner. He got caught out sleeping. He should never have come out of that corner second.

“And then he didn’t have the pace, which was odd – Norris has more pace.

“On the restart, McLaren knew it was a matter of laps before Norris would overtake Piastri with the tyre difference. It was obvious, 100% sure, he would get ahead.

“So why make him lose three laps instead of giving him a shot at Verstappen? Because Verstappen is in the championship (battle). You don’t want to give Verstappen wins, that’s more points for him in the Drivers’ Championship.”

Although Piastri continues to lead the Drivers’ Championship ahead of Norris, his tally up to 146 points, for the first time since Japan, Verstappen in third ate into it. The Red Bull driver is only 22 points down, having pulled back 10 at Imola.

“They (McLaren) seem to be happy with second and third,” Villeneuve added.

“McLaren has a car where a good weekend means first and second, anything less will be disappointing. First and third is fairly acceptable, but they seem happy with second and third.”

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