McLaren has admitted that it must “take the blame” over the three-place grid drop that ruined Oscar Piastri’s podium hopes at Formula 1’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Piastri received the entire upgrade package on his MCL38 that inspired Lando Norris to the win in Miami and McLaren again emerged as Red Bull’s closest challenger.
The Australian headed a McLaren 1-2 in the last practice session and out-qualified his team-mate to take second place, ending 0.074 seconds behind Max Verstappen.
But having impeded Kevin Magnussen’s Haas during the latter stages in Q1, Piastri would be prevented from taking up his place on the front row as he was penalised.
Piastri managed to retrieve a place on Carlos Sainz through the pit stops, but he was unable to pressure Charles Leclerc’s for third as track position proved imperative.
“I think Oscar pushed as much as he could in this race,” Stella reflected. “I am saying this because looking at his data and speaking to his tyre engineers that he is pushing at the limit at the end, so Oscar I think he went flat out and I don’t think he could have gone any faster.
“I think in managing the budget overall, Leclerc was a little bit more than Oscar and he could retain the podium.
Stella has conceded that Piastri obstructing Magnussen was down to the team not communicating with him enough rather than the driver committing a careless error.
“It’s a little bit of a shame for Oscar because the performance he deployed yesterday, he had the performance over the weekend to score a podium.
“And we take the blame for that because the reason he got the penalty was impeding and that was to do with our operations.
“It doesn’t have to do with Oscar making any mistake at all, it was a situation created by the team. But I am sure Oscar will have opportunities in the future.”
Piastri would be made to settle for the first spot outside the rostrum places, but Norris managed to exhibit McLaren’s potential with a third consecutive podium result.
McLaren has strengthened its grasp on third place in the Constructors’ Championship with 154 points, now placing the Woking-based squad 58 points behind Ferrari.
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