McLaren’s Oscar Piastri believed the loose wing mirror on track during the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix warranted an immediate Safety Car intervention.
The wing mirror on Alex Albon’s Williams came loose and flew off on Lap 30 of the Qatar GP, with the item left stranded on the approach to Turn 1.
Race control elected to cover the incident with double waved yellow flags for several laps, until Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas ran over the mirror, cascading debris across the Lusail Circuit asphalt.
The FIA said in a statement it operated standard procedure in response to the loose wing mirror, but Piastri argued immediate action was necessary.
“I think the right thing to do would have been a VSC or a Safety Car pretty much straight away,” the McLaren driver said post-race.
“I didn’t really know where the mirror was, but after seeing it on the big screen, being basically in the braking zone for Turn 1 when you’re trying to overtake, I don’t really know what we were going to do until someone hit it, because I think having it sit there for 30 laps of the race would have been not very smart.
“So I think, yes, probably should have been a bit earlier because, you know, at racing speeds, especially in that part of the track, you can’t have a marshal run on and just simply pick it up.”
The Safety Car timing hurt Piastri, as he had just pitted when it came into action, but the Australian contemplated “that’s how racing goes sometimes, unfortunately. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t.
“I feel like we’ve had that happen quite a few times this year, but we’ve had our fair share of luck as well.”
Piastri looks forward to Constructors’ title battle in Abu Dhabi
Regardless of the unfortunate timing of the first Safety Car, which saw Piastri restart the race in fourth position on Lap 40 of 57, the Australian was able to finish on the podium in third once team-mate Lando Norris served a 10-second stop-and-go penalty.
However, despite McLaren being the much-fancied outfit coming into Qatar, it was Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s turn to shin with the Dutchman taking the GP win.
“I think the pace was decent, just not quite strong enough in the right places on the track, which made trying to get close pretty tough,” Piastri said.
“Once I had some clean air, the pace was strong.
“Fighting for the win, given where I started and how the first part of the race panned out was always going to be a challenge, but I’m pretty happy to end up on the podium.”
Piastri, winner of the Qatar Sprint in 2023 and ’24, said “the track this year was very different to last year in terms of the grip level.
“Our car in certain conditions is quite different to last year as well, and I feel like some of our strengths that we had last year are not really strengths anymore because everybody else has caught up to us and I feel like some of our weaknesses are not really our weaknesses either, and I feel like it’s a much more well-rounded car.
“But I think also maybe the grip level has taken away some of our strengths that we’ve had in the past here.
“But I always thought it was going to be pretty tough between the top four teams.”
McLaren is locked in a battle for the Constructors’ Championship for Ferrari and with Norris’ penalty landing him in a final position of 10th and Charles Leclerc finishing second, the Scuderia has closed the gap to the table-topping papaya outfit to 21 points.
Piastri is predicting another tight battle in the season finale at Abu Dhabi this coming weekend, predicting Red Bull and Mercedes to be in the mix, which will no doubt have implications on the title fight.
“I [Yas Marina] will be a track that’s stronger for Ferrari,” the Australian claimed.
“I was maybe a little bit surprised at the pace they had today [in Qatar].
“But I don’t think we’ll be slow next week either. I think it will be a good battle.
“The top four teams at the moment are very, very close on their days. I’m expecting more of the same.”
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