Oscar Piastri has insisted that McLaren did the “right thing” to pit him a second time despite it costing him the win to Charles Leclerc in Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix.
Starting second, Piastri seized the lead on the first lap when he executed a daring move around team-mate Lando Norris’ outside at the Variante della Roggia chicane.
The Australian appeared on course to land a second F1 win as he extended his gap over Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and then later Norris through the opening two stints.
However, McLaren’s choice to pit both drivers a second time would backfire as Ferrari opted to retain track position and Leclerc completed a one-stop to steal the win.
Piastri has denied that McLaren made an error, though, citing that the excessive graining that was prevalent across the grid meant that a two-stop looked the best bet.
Asked whether he should have replicated Leclerc’s race with one stop, Piastri replied: “Clearly not as seriously as I needed to.
“I think for me it was a big risk to do that; the graining of the tyres has been a big topic all weekend.
“You know, in practice, once you got graining, it was basically game over. Even in the first in on the Mediums, it was pretty difficult.
“And yet, when we made the second stop for myself, my front left tyre was pretty heavily grained and, you know, I was going slower and slower.
“So it seemed like a sensible decision to pit again. Yeah, I guess nobody really expected the graining to clear up on Charles from what I heard.
“So yeah, in hindsight, clearly stopping once was the right thing to do.
“But from that point in the race, with all the information that we’d gathered through the weekend, it seemed incredibly risky.”
Piastri has argued that Leclerc was able to attempt the one-stop as he had less to lose and would have still come home in third place had his gamble not worked out.
“That’s kind of the blessing and the curse of leading the race or, you know, being at the front full stop,” he continued.
“The guys behind you can react to what you do and, you know, for Charles, if he did a two-stop, he would have locked in third.
“And if he did a one-stop and fell off the cliff, he still would have finished third.
“But of course, he pulled the one-stop off and Ferrari looked like the hero today.
“So yeah, obviously it hurts at the moment, but I think in the moment it was the right thing to do.”
Piastri has conceded he was optimistic he had the pace to catch and pass Leclerc, but getting caught behind Carlos Sainz and backmarkers hampered his progress.
“I asked basically straight away what pace I needed to do to go and get Charles and the pace I needed was basically what I did for the first few laps,” he revealed.
“And at that point I was pretty optimistic. I lost a decent amount of time behind Carlos.
“He had [Lance] Stroll driving like it was his first go-kart race and I don’t know what went through his brain when he saw his blue flag, but that cost another second.
“I needed that stint to be perfect to win that race and those little things ultimately what cost us a bit of a chance.
“It would have been a long shot anyway, but it was certainly not far off from being able to achieve it.
“But I was pushing flat out to try and do it. I couldn’t have gone any faster than that so it just came a bit short.”
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