Piastri: “The most difficult decision in motorsport”
The Australian driver, who finished fourth in the British Grand Prix, had a very frustrating afternoon. In a battle for victory against his teammate Lando Norris mid-race, the Australian was sacrificed by his team to save Norris's strategy, ending his hopes of winning.
He is probably the most disappointed driver at the end of the Grand Prix. McLaren driver Oscar Piastri was still in a position to win yesterday at the halfway point. However, the arrival of rain on the 27th lap changed the game since, unexpectedly, his team did not make the decision to make a double pit stop (unlike Mercedes which brought in both its drivers). A painful choice to make, not without consequences as it cost a podium, perhaps more, to the Australian. However, he refuses to criticize his team.
Piastri refuses to blame his team
With very changeable weather conditions this Sunday, the race was a real headache for the engineers and strategists of the teams and in this game, McLaren messed up. On the 27th lap, both McLaren drivers are ahead of the Mercedes but the rain intensifies. While Verstappen and Sainz had already pitted the previous lap to put on intermediate tires, the Woking team decides to bring in Norris, who was leading the Grand Prix, but not his young Australian teammate in order to avoid the latter losing time in the pits.
A bold strategic decision that did not pay off as stopping one lap later, Piastri lost over 10 seconds and rejoined the track in 6th position, cutting short his dream of achieving a first victory. After the race, Piastri, despite his disappointment, refused to blame his team, considering they were faced with the toughest decision in motor racing and that he himself had a share of responsibility in this move.
I would say it was a decision shared between me and the team. You have two cars in first and second position, separated by half a second with rain falling. I don’t think there is anything more difficult than that. So I think clearly there are things we need to review. I think making a double pit stop would have been the best decision, but in hindsight, everything is clearer. We just need to see if we had information telling us it was the best decision,” he notably told the media after the race about his team’s strategy.
« As soon as I passed in front of the pit lane entrance, I knew it was the wrong choice. The last two corners were very, very difficult and I could see on my dashboard that Lando was about five seconds behind me when I entered the pits, so I knew I had a lot of problems at that time. The Australian driver is paying the price for McLaren strategists’ wrong interpretation who didn’t think that the rain would fall so heavily on the track and therefore ended up sacrificing their driver’s race.
Finally 4th at the finish, just 12 seconds behind the winner Lewis Hamilton, the Australian had the pace to fight for the win. He still brings back 12 points to McLaren, which is now only 7 units behind Ferrari.
