Stallard: Piastri immediately became one of McLaren’s leaders

Oscar Piastri’s debut in Formula 1 in 2023 turned out to be difficult – at the beginning of the season the McLaren car was inferior to its rivals in terms of speed, which is why in the first eight races the team earned points only four times. The Australian racer’s race engineer, Tom Stallard, said Oscar’s calmness and ability to control his emotions in a difficult situation greatly simplified the team’s work.

Tom Stallard: “The role of a driver in a team, even a rookie, is significant as he is one of two people driving the car. Driver leadership comes in many different forms, and that doesn’t always mean giving a speech to hundreds of employees. A big part of leadership is giving feedback, the approach to the job, how the driver behaves in the car.

I don’t think Oscar realized it, but he was one of the leaders of the team from the moment he joined us. He took responsibility and did not look for the guilty. It could have been very difficult for him, but the leadership and composure he showed during that period was one of the key factors that helped the team stay in the right place and improve results.

I strongly believe in the importance of building social connections. To do this, it is not necessary to go anywhere with the racer at all; it is enough to simply communicate, ask questions and share stories.

Oscar and I built a relationship by spending time together – we had lunch together a few times and things like that, but mostly we had a lot of coffee together at the team base and discussed different racing stories from our careers. We talked a lot about what we failed in the past, and shared painful lessons from life in Formula 1.

All this ensures that you can make the collaboration more vital and add humor to it, because years later you can laugh about your mistakes.”