Oscar Piastri explained why he couldn’t find a way to bring the fight to Max Verstappen, losing out to the Dutchman in the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix Sprint Race.
The Australian started on pole at Spa-Francorchamps after a blistering lap on Friday, but Verstappen was able to overhaul the McLaren to take victory.
Using the slipstream to pass him on the Kemmel Straight on Lap 1, the Dutchman could fend off Piastri for victory.
After the race, Piastri told media including Motorsport Week of how difficult it was to try and attempt an overtake on Verstappen, and revealed he was not realistically able to pass.
“Realistically, not that close,” he said. “I think there was one or two times where, you know, I got within a car length.
“But yeah, the problem is I didn’t have enough and Turn 5 is not really a corner where you can make a lunge on someone.
“Once they defend the inside, it’s difficult to do anything. So yeah, I think realistically I was going to have to try and get past on the straight, which we were no chance of doing. So yeah, a little bit frustrating.
“But you know, we knew that was a possibility going into the Sprint, and I was prepared for maybe not to be within eight tenths of the whole race and not be able to do anything, but for this kind of result.”
Piastri said he was attempting to use alternative driving lines to work out a way of passing Verstappen, but that came to no avail.
“|I was trying. I was definitely trying,” he said. “Yeah, it’s difficult because you want to save the battery at some points, you want to use it at some points.
“But also you don’t want to drop too far back and give yourself too much of a gap to actually close up to because it wasn’t as simple as just getting DRS and then you let DRS do the rest.
“You had to be even closer than that. And so, yeah, that was tricky. But yeah, I certainly tried in those 15 laps, but to no avail.”
McLaren’s compromise doesn’t pay dividends
When asked if he could realistically challenge Verstappen after being passed, Piastri believed he could, but said that being stuck in the Red Bull’s dirty air hurt his MCL39’s tyres.
“I was hoping we would be super quick in the middle sector and be able to hang on,” he reflected. “But I think I could for the first part of the race.
“But you know, spending that much time right behind someone, you overheat the tyres very quickly.
“And especially around here, they deg as well, it’s not just getting hot.
“So I think the back end of the race, I lost some of the advantage in the middle sector that I had. And you know, obviously you don’t gain anything more on the straight.
Piastri has conceded that Verstappen’s race pace proved to be “a little better than expected” amid Red Bull’s gamble to run a less-loaded rear wing.
“I think it was probably a little bit better than I expected,” he admitted. “But yeah, I mean, I wasn’t expecting Max to be slow. That’s for sure.
“I knew it was going to be a challenge, maybe not quite as difficult as it was.
“But I think, like I said before, after following so closely for so long, the tyres just naturally get to a level where they can’t be equalised. So it wasn’t a big surprise for me.”
“So yeah, realistically, I don’t think we had quite enough to even get close enough. But yeah, we’ll see what we can do for qualifying.”
READ MORE – Max Verstappen fends off McLarens for Sprint Race victory at F1 Belgian GP
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