Piastri’s frustration grows as McLaren’s mistakes continue. When will this talented driver secure his first F1 victory and break through the team’s struggles?
In Austria and at Silverstone, Oscar Piastri may have let slip potentially two victories. In Q3 at the Red Bull Ring, his lap was cancelled—and he had to start 10th. Who knows what could have happened if he had launched ahead of George Russell.
At Silverstone, the Australian was plagued by bad luck in the pits: an extra lap in the rain cost him 17 seconds. Yet, he finished the Grand Prix just 12 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton… More regrets!
Without that extra rain lap, could Oscar Piastri have won the last Grand Prix in the UK?
“It would have been tough…”
“At that point in the race, my options as the second car on track (behind Lando Norris) were always slightly unfavorable. In some scenarios, yes, I could probably have won the race, but many people in this race had a lot of things they could have done much better—many people have many questions to ask themselves in situations like that.”
Nevertheless, McLaren F1 continues to make strategic or operational mistakes. For instance, at Silverstone, Lando Norris did his last stint on softs while he had new mediums available.
Before this GP in Hungary, has there been a reassessment in Woking, according to Oscar Piastri?
“We’ve analyzed the situation and identified the points on which we could have done better. And on both sides of the garage, we’ve worked very well together to identify what was wrong. But, yes, we were in the race for the victory…”
“Before the rain, we were not the fastest car on the track. We were fourth and fifth. And with that weather, we weren’t in a position to put ourselves in a good spot—and unfortunately, we made some mistakes from there. But opportunities are always very, very hard to seize. And we are creating them.”
“We learned some lessons from Silverstone, yes… Obviously, some specific to that race in particular. Some in general. As we are now fighting at the front of the grid, we are competing with teams that have been in this position for incredibly long times. In some cases, over ten years. That’s not an excuse for making mistakes, but we are inexperienced compared to some of our competitors.”
“We are learning a lot as we go. We’ve had a few races where we’ve really capitalized on our opportunities, and maybe that hasn’t been commented on as much, but that’s part of the game. When you’re at the front of the grid, these missed chances can make the difference between winning a race or finishing second, which, of course, carries a bit more weight than if it’s for a 6th and a 7th place…”
Is Oscar Piastri not starting to feel frustrated, though? Winning his first Grand Prix must be itching him!
“Somewhere… The fact that we have these opportunities in the first place is already good. Our memory is not so short. And, you know, just 12 months ago, finishing 3rd and 4th was an incredible result for us. So, we still keep that in mind.”
“Of course, we can’t live on that basis forever, and we must understand that our position is quite different today. But the opportunities have always been very different. Some circumstances have been under our control and we’ve been very good at analyzing them. A good portion of the circumstances were out of our control as a team. So, you know, focusing on what we need to improve for ourselves and not getting distracted by things that are out of our control, that’s a big part of what needs to be done.”
“I don’t think the approach changes, no, for the majority of things we’ve done, it has worked well. We came close to victory twice. So, from a performance and driving standpoint, we are doing what’s needed. But with the battle so tight now, with really four teams involved, it’s really not easy to win. So I feel it might be tight, but I want to make sure to learn every weekend, so I’m satisfied with what I’m doing—rather than focusing solely on the results.”
A McLaren B version since Miami making a difference
The turning point of the season for McLaren F1 was at the Miami Grand Prix. The developments then allowed the car to make a leap in terms of pure performance.
But has Oscar Piastri had to modify his driving style?
“A bit, yes. I mean, it’s certainly not a completely different car from what we had last year in terms of how you need to drive it. Some things have been improved, yes. Particularly early in the year, we still had some difficulties in some areas that made the car a bit tricky to drive.”
“It’s still not an easy car to drive, let’s say, but every team has its own challenges. In a way, having a car that is familiar to us from last year is potentially a good thing. Of course, there are always things you want to continue to improve, but the car does not seem completely different and you are not driving completely differently from last year.”
“Our F1 is just much faster, which is, of course, what we want first. And if we can make it behave a bit more to our liking, then that’s also a bonus.”
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Chasing Victory: Piastri’s Struggle Amid McLaren Errors Chasing Victory: Piastri’s Struggle Amid McLaren Errors
