Stella: This is the most important moment in Oscar’s career

Oscar Piastri won the sprint in Qatar to open the record for victories in Formula 1, although Saturday’s short race is considered a less important event than the Grand Prix and fewer points are awarded for it. But McLaren team leader Andrea Stella rightly noted that this is still first place.

Andrea Stella: “Today both McLaren drivers performed fantastic! It was not easy to stay calm in a situation where some competitors started on soft tyres, which we expected in advance, knowing that we would have some problems in the first few laps. But we knew that soft rubber is subject to serious degradation, so we hoped that the situation would change in our favor.

Oscar acted very calmly and thoughtfully and also showed excellent pace in today’s qualifying before the sprint, so this Saturday went well! And not just for Oscar, but also for Lando and the entire McLaren team.

This is obviously the biggest moment in Oscar’s career, as is his first podium in Suzuka, and even though it’s a sprint on Saturday, it’s still a first place for us. Oscar was the fastest in both qualifying and the race. However, I cannot say anything with certainty about the race yet; Perhaps Max Verstappen did not attack at full speed at the end of the sprint, because he was already thinking about his third title.

But we performed with great confidence and deserved this success, which we achieved thanks to our speed, and this confirms that we are on the right track. This means that we must continue in the same way.”