McLaren boss Andrea Stella praised the speed and professionalism Oscar Piastri showed at Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix despite an unfortunate ending to his race.
Piastri capitalised on Sergio Perez’s failed dive into Turn 1 to pass both the Red Bull and Carlos Sainz before also overtaking Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari to run in second.
The Australian retained that position during the first stint, but Leclerc undercut him and then team-mate Lando Norris leapt ahead when he pitted under the Safety Car.
A thrilling tussle with Sainz ended in disaster for Piastri as he incurred damage and had to detour back to the pits, putting him out of contention to land a points finish.
But Stella believes Piastri gained valuable insight from the weekend, citing how his tenth margin to Norris in qualifying was less than the gap in upgrades the two had.
“I think Oscar comes out of this weekend even more conscious of his strengths as a driver,” Stella said when asked to assess how Piastri had dealt with Norris winning.
“We sort of knew already how fast he is on a single lap. Consider that he didn’t have the full package.
“And let me pay proper credit to Oscar. The gap he had to Lando in qualifying is smaller than the difference of the package he had.
“So, he was really pulling off strong performance over a single lap in very difficult conditions like all drivers with Soft tyres.”
Despite Piastri being unable to match Norris’ lap times on the longer runs, Stella reckons that his driver improved in his race management compared to previous races.
“His performance in the race was again very strong,” Stella continued.
“Lando said something really nice before. He said, by looking at Oscar overtaking a Ferrari, he got like, ‘wow, we are actually there today’.
“So, it was a realization for Lando himself. And Oscar could keep a strong pace in the first stint. So, I think he comes out of this weekend with this sort of convictions, which, especially in terms of race pace, is something that we wanted to improve having looked at Japan, having looked at China. So, for me, he’s in a very strong place.”
Oscar Piastri (AUS) McLaren MCL38. 05.05.2024. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 6, Miami Grand Prix, Miami, Florida, USA, Race Day.
Stella also commended how Piastri responded to being told he would receive half the updates McLaren brought compared to Norris with the entire upgraded MCL38.
“He also comes off of this race having proven once again how strong a team player he is,” the Italian added.
“Because clearly, when I told him, Oscar, we are going to give the sidepods and the floor to Lando, he wasn’t the happiest, you know, in the bottom of his heart.
“But at no point, he made this decision difficult. At no point, he said like, ‘oh, but why?’
“You know, he understood the reasoning and he was immediately supportive, like all the entourage around Oscar.
“So, I think he comes away with a lot of positives and the fact that it was the collision with Carlos, actually, I think that was a bit of a… Carlos, he was a little late in braking, he had a bit of an oversteer, contact with Oscar, but I think that was a really racing incident and it doesn’t detract anything of the weekend that Oscar has been able to pull off.”
