Andrea Stella: Oscar just drove great

Andrea Stella, the head of the McLaren team, was upset after the finish of the Las Vegas Grand Prix not only because of the retirement of Lando Norris, but also because Oscar Piastri, who drove excellently on the new city circuit, finished only tenth .

After a failed qualification, Oscar started yesterday’s race from 18th place, but quickly managed to rise to 4th place: initially he managed to avoid problems in the 1st corner after the start and finished the first lap in 13th place, as 4th I was already eleventh, and after another three laps I reached the top ten.

The Australian driver continued to make progress, but with fifteen laps behind him there was contact between his McLaren and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes as they battled for position. Both cars had flat wheels, but Piastri, unlike Lewis, noticed the problem immediately and pulled into the pits without wasting any time. The problem is that he had no intention of changing tires on lap 16, so the timing was clearly not the best.

With less than a third of the distance behind them, it was too early to switch from hard tires to Medium and it became clear that it would not be possible to complete the race with a single pit stop. Piastri received the next set Hard and returned to the court.

It was also a shame that the safety car appeared on track after the incident with Max Verstappen and George Russell, as those who started on Medium tires had the opportunity to make pit stops with minimal loss of time and all gaps were closed.

Due to an unnecessary pit stop, Piastri, who finished the 42nd lap in 4th place, had to pit again, was fitted with a Medium kit and ultimately finished 10th, although he earned an additional bonus point for the best lap. was at least some consolation.

“It’s frustrating,” Australian publication Speedcafe quoted Andrea Stella as saying. “It’s a shame this happened because Oscar’s pilot was simply fantastic.”

When we left the race after the first session in qualifying, we obviously didn’t start from the position we could have, because we could improve the car settings after practice. But we can say that we were a bit surprised that we went so fast in the race.

We were unlucky: we started on hard tires, but had to pit earlier than planned due to contact with Hamilton. In any case, the high chance of a safety car put those who started on Hard tires at a slight disadvantage, as this forced another pit stop towards the end of the race.”

Piastri was the only McLaren driver to reach the finish, when Lando Norris crashed the car on the third lap. As a result, the team earned only two points, while the Aston Martin drivers scored 12, and this team reduced the gap with McLaren, which occupies 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship, to 11 points. This promises an interesting rivalry between the two in the season finale in Abu Dhabi.