Oscar Piastri likely walked away from the Austrian Grand Prix weekend disappointed having missed out on a Sprint win and finishing under two seconds behind George Russell in the race.
The McLaren driver found himself running in second place at the end of the race after contact between his teammate Lando Norris and Max Verstappen forced both to pit from the lead.
This enabled George Russell to take the lead, but a Virtual Safety Car enabled Piastri to cut the deficit to within two seconds when the race restarted.
Piastri had already used up the best of his medium tyres and was unable to catch Russell with a handful of laps left, missing out on the win having finished second in the Sprint race.
McLaren has been the clear favourite to challenge Red Bull in the upcoming races, and 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill believes it could favour Piastri when discussing his chances on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
Damon Hill expects ‘unlucky’ Oscar Piastri to perform well at British GP
Piastri finished fourth in last year’s British GP, narrowly missing out on a podium when Lewis Hamilton overtook him during a late Safety Car.
Based on the Australian’s performance at the Red Bull Ring, Hill expects Piastri to perform well alongside teammate Norris.
“I think Oscar’s had a lot of bad luck. He drove very well, I thought. Very unlucky to lose his grid position, lose his fastest lap in qualifying,” said Hill.
“The evidence was not actually that clear that he’d gone over the line. He did some great overtakes and I think one of the McLarens I think could win this race.”
Oscar Piastri must pick up confidence after disappointing outings
It was the second disappointing outing for the 23-year-old in a row in Austria after he finished 31.541 seconds behind Norris at the Spanish GP, enabling both Mercedes and Ferrari drivers to finish ahead.
It was also the second time he had a qualifying lap time deleted due to track limits, having run wide on the exit of Turn 7 in Austria. McLaren protested the result but committed several procedural errors, leading it to be dismissed by the stewards.
When he had a lap time deleted in Spain after running off track on his final Q3 attempt, Piastri believed there was ‘evidence’ proving McLaren’s setup caused his struggles.
Going into Silverstone, McLaren has a good chance of closing the gap to Red Bull again due to its mix of high-speed corners. Piastri will need to build back his confidence to get close to Norris, having suffered one of his worst results of the season at the start of the triple header.
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