McLaren’s weekend was definitely packed with emotions. On one hand, the Woking-based team scored its first Grand Prix win since the Italy 2021 as Lando Norris delivered the goods, but on the other his teammate Oscar Piastri definitely was not so lucky following a very strong Grand Prix.
The Australian driver was involved in a collision with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz after a very positive start which saw him gain three positions — that because four when he passed Leclerc on lap 4.
After the incident with the Spaniard on lap 39, he was forced to pit due to front wing damage and ended the race out of the top ten.
Nevertheless, Team Principal Andrea Stella was very proud of the performance displayed by the 2021 Formula 2 Champion, who wasn’t running the full upgrade configuration that aided Norris in achieveing his first ever race win.
Stella commented on the impressive weekend of his 23-year-old driver after the end of the race, highlighting his raw speed and talent.
“I think Oscar comes out of this weekend even more conscious of his strengths as a driver. We sort of knew already how fast he is on a single lap, considering that he didn’t have the full package.
“And let me pay proper credit to Oscar. The gap he had to Lando in qualifying is smaller than the difference of the package he had. So he was really pulling off strong performance over a single lap in very difficult conditions, like all drivers said, with the soft tyres.”
The former Ferrari engineer also brought up how Piastri’s strong display and pace reassured his British colleague, helping him feel a win was possible.
“His performance in the race was, again, very strong. Lando said something really nice before. He said that 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. So I think he comes out of 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’s in a very strong place.”
Among the praise the Italian had for Piastri, Stella mentioned how much of a team player Piastri is as he respected McLaren’s decision to give Norris the fully updated package at the weekend.
“He also comes out of this race having proven once again how strong a team player he is. Because, clearly, when I told him, ‘Oscar, we are 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, like, ‘oh, 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.”
As for the incident that sent Piastri’s race south, the Italian declared it a racing incident. However, the stewards disgraced and handed Sainz a 5-second penalty a few hours later.
“And the fact that it was the collision with Carlos, actually, I think that was a bit of a… Carlos, he was a little late in braking, he had a bit of an oversteer, contact with Oscar, but I think that was really a racing incident, it doesn’t detract anything of the weekend that Oscar has been able to pull off.”
Piastri will have a chance to get a solid result in Imola next time out on the 19th of May — he’ll join Norris in having the fully upgraded package.
