McLaren scored their first victory since 2021 at the Miami Grand Prix last weekend. Lando Norris bagged his maiden win, taking advantage of a perfectly-timed safety car to beat Max Verstappen.
It had been nearly three years since Daniel Ricciardo led Norris in a one-two finish at Monza. Oscar Piastri is hoping to follow in the footsteps of his compatriot this year by standing on the top step in McLaren colours.
Piastri was also on for a strong result in Miami. He’d qualified alongside Norris on the third row in sixth, but was second within five laps after making an opportunistic start and passing Charles Leclerc.
He held station until the pit-stop phase, when he came in on the wrong side of the safety car. That saw him drop to fourth.
And Carlos Sainz then race ruined his race with a lunge at the final corner that didn’t work out and broke Piastri’s front wing. The 23-year-old had to pit for repairs and could only recover to 13th.
Speaking afterwards, he admitted he had ‘mixed emotions’ as he watched Norris celebrate. He will at least have the benefit of the MCL38’s full upgrade package in Imola after only running around half the parts here.
Zak Brown says Oscar Piastri can be as good as Lando Norris
Speaking on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, McLaren CEO Zak Brown outlined where Piastri could improve as he goes in search of his first win. In his eyes, he’s capable of matching Norris, one of the very best in F1.
But to do that on a more consistent basis, he needs to manage his tyres more effectively. And that’s something Brown expects to come with experience.
“I think Lando is as good as anyone in Formula 1,” he said. “I think Oscar is the match for Lando. He’s not yet.
“What we see now is he can be, but he has some inconsistencies – tyre management. These things just come with experience.
“He can do everything Lando can do, and then sometimes he doesn’t. That’s more, I think, inexperience, the lack of consistency.
“These tyres are pretty hard to manage. I think he’s just going to get better and better and better.”
Martin Brundle praises Oscar Piastri at Miami Grand Prix
While Piastri ultimately finished Sunday’s race empty-handed, his fine performance didn’t go unnoticed. Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle felt he’d shown ‘tremendous’ pace, just like his teammate.
Meanwhile,his manager Mark Webber argued that he was producing a ‘totally magical’ drive until his race unravelled through no fault of his own. The former Red Bull man says he drove like a ‘veteran’.
Piastri is only in his second season in F1 and is up against a driver ‘everyone’ regards as one of the elite alongside Verstappen, Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. He’s already shown flashes of the driver he can become.
Perhaps most notably, he won the sprint race in Qatar last year – one of only two instances all season where Red Bull were beaten. Norris insists he could have won the main Grand Prix but it was his younger teammate who stole the spotlight.
Brown believes that he can become a world champion in the future, although he may have to defeat Norris to do so. The British driver is under contract until the end of 2028 after signing a new deal over the winter.
The post Zak Brown tells Oscar Piastri what ‘inconsistencies’ he must improve, predicts he’ll get ‘better and better’ appeared first on F1 Oversteer.