Oscar Piastri will have the opportunity to win his first Formula 1 Grand Prix this season. That looks almost certain after McLaren’s progress.
Piastri scored two podiums in his maiden campaign and will be looking to take the next step in his sophomore year. McLaren bolted an ‘astonishing’ upgrade package onto their car in Miami and it’s got them breathing down the neck of Red Bull.
But if he is to take victory, the Australian is going to have to beat Lando Norris. And the Briton, who scored his first-ever win in Miami, is arguably the most in-form driver on the grid right now.
Norris leads Piastri 6-1 in both the qualifying and race-day head-to-heads. The only weekend where he’s got the better of him so far is Saudi Arabia.
The 23-year-old did qualify second for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, only to receive a three-place grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen in Q1. He finished fourth in the race while Norris very nearly beat Max Verstappen.
Piastri’s compatriot Alan Jones is among those to regard him as a future world champion. F1 expert Peter Windsor even thinks he has more potential than Norris, but the former F2 title-winner must become a more rounded driver before he can beat him on a regular basis.
Andrea Stella spoke to Oscar Piastri about tyre management
One area where McLaren would like Piastri to improve is tyre management. CEO Zak Brown accepts that it’s ‘pretty hard’ to optimise the Pirelli rubber but wants his driver to iron out the ‘inconsistencies’.
And speaking to Sky Sports F1 after FP1 at the Monaco Grand Prix, team principal Andrea Stella lifted the lid on some discussions behind the scenes. McLaren set some new ‘objectives’ for Piastri after April’s Chinese GP.
Piastri qualified fifth in Shanghai, just one spot behind Norris. But in the race, where the tyres are a bigger consideration, he dropped back to eighth as his teammate split the Red Bulls in second.
Since their private talks, Stella has noticed a marked improvement. And that will be key as he tries to go up his level in his second year in the sport.
“With Oscar, after China, where we struggled a bit managing the tyres, we set some objectives, together with Oscar, in terms of the opportunities to improve,” he said. “He cashed in immediately this opportunity, he drove very well in the following races.”
What Lewis Hamilton has said about Oscar Piastri
Piastri has impressed seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton with his performances so far this season. The 23-year-old is hoping to follow in his footsteps by winning the title with McLaren.
Hamilton feels that the youngster has done a ‘great job’ this year, but just been ‘unlucky’ in recent races. In Miami, for instance, Carlos Sainz hit the McLaren driver and damaged his car.
While Sainz received a penalty, it made little difference to Piastri, who had to come into the pits and fell way down the order. He ultimately came home in 13th.
Ahead of the race in Monaco, he sits sixth in the championship on 53 points, just over half that of Norris. He’ll look to start chipping away at that margin over the next few weekends.
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