McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has selected Oscar Piastri’s “exceptional” run to the podium in Japan as the standout moment in his rookie Formula 1 campaign.
An exceptional record through the junior categories and the legal battle that occurred for his services heightened the expectations placed on Piastri’s debut top-flight season.
While Lando Norris outscored him by 205 points to 97, recording seven podiums in the process, Piastri excelled with a brace of top-three finishes and a win in the Qatar Sprint.
But Stella, who was impressed by his driver’s mature approach, has overlooked the exploits at the Losail circuit that saw Piastri also log his best grand prix finish of second.
Instead, the McLaren boss has picked out Piastri’s weekend in Japan as his highlight of the season. The ex-Alpine prospect pipped team-mate Norris to the front row before finishing a comfortable third in the race.
Stella believes Piastri’s route to a maiden F1 podium was his most impressive feat of 2023 due to the fact it was his first-ever visit to the technically demanding Suzuka circuit.
“On a track like Suzuka he put it in P2 on the grid, we really need to reflect for a second on the extent of this result,” Stella elucidated. “A track like Suzuka – not only is it high-speed, but it’s a very narrow track, it’s a very unforgiving track as soon as you go too wide because you have the gravel in some places.
“In terms of speed, in terms of capacity to learn very rapidly, in terms of collaborating with his engineers and extracting the information that he needs to grow so rapidly, in terms of his own awareness of where he is in the various stages to go from: ‘I know nothing about this track, first time in a Formula 1 car to being P2 on the grid.
“And also the way he keeps himself calm, controlled – therefore always capitalising on his potential because he doesn’t create any unnecessary stress – that’s quite exceptional. And I can see why he was so successful in junior categories.”
Stella notes how encouraged McLaren was by the swiftness in which Piastri got up to speed each weekend when he had the advantage of previous experience at a venue.
The Italian acknowledges that the team were prepared for the 22-year-old to be on the backfoot at new circuits, particularly whenever the Sprint format was present.
“On tracks with which Oscar had a certain familiarity or on which Oscar could do FP1, FP2, FP3 sessions and the full [schedule], he was very competitive,” Stella added.
“But on tracks which he had never been to before, [where] you only do a P1 and then you go and do a Sprint, then you can see that the level you need to achieve to be very competitive is very high.
“So, we are extremely pleased with the level of performance that Oscar has been able to deliver once he had a fair amount of practice, which most of the time just means three hours before you go into qualifying.”
