He didn’t win the race but Oscar Piastri impressed McLaren in Miami
McLaren Formula 1 boss Andrea Stella says that Oscar Piastri is “in a strong place” after the Miami GP despite his performance being overshadowed by the victory of team mate Lando Norris.
Piastri went into the weekend with what Stella described as “50%” of the upgrade package that Norris has on his car,
While the Australian had the new front wing and revised suspension, he didn’t have the floor and sidepods that were used by his team mate to such good effect.
After running second in the early stages and briefly leading the race after Max Verstappen pitted Piastri’s Miami race was ruined by contact with Carlos Sainz that damaged his front wing. He finished outside the points.
“I think Oscar comes out of this weekend even more conscious of his strengths as a driver,” said the Italian.
“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 during qualifying is smaller than the difference of the package he had.
“So he was really pulling off a strong performance over a single lap in very difficult conditions, like all drivers said with the soft tyres.
“His performance in the race was again very strong. Lando said something really nice, he said, by looking at Oscar overtaking a Ferrari, he got like, ‘Wow, we are actually there today.’
“So it was a realisation for Lando himself. And Oscar could keep a strong pace in the first stint.
“I think he comes away from this weekend with these 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 is in a very strong place.”
In addition Stella praised Piastri’s reaction after learning that he wouldn’t have the full update package in Miami.
“He also comes off this race having proven once again how strong a team player is,” he said. “Because clearly when I told him, ‘Oscar, we’re going to give the sidepods and the floor to Lando,’ he wasn’t the happiest in the bottom of his heart.
“But at no point he made this decision difficult. At no point he said, ‘But why?’ 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 he was a little late in braking, he had a bit of an overseer, 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.”
Adam Cooper F1 