Miami Grand Prix 2023: Oscar Piastri endures a McLaren strategy disaster - again

It’s becoming all too familiar a feeling for Oscar Piastri after yet another Grand Prix was ruined courtesy of a major McLaren mistake. So why can’t they get it right?

Oscar Piastri of Australia and McLaren

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It’s becoming all too familiar a feeling for Oscar Piastri after yet another Grand Prix was ruined courtesy of a major McLaren misstep.

For the fourth time in five races the Australian rookie fell foul to circumstances out of his control – this time a shocking strategy call and software glitch which combined to land him in 19th.

He and teammate Lando Norris were never given a chance to challenge in Miami on Monday morning after McLaren made the head scratching decision to start the pair on soft tyres while the rest of the grid went with medium and hard compounds.

Piastri rose five places from his starting grid position in the opening exchanges but was almost immediately forced to give those back when both McLarens entered the pits on lap six to swap to the hard tyres.

Languishing down in 18th, things went from bad to worse for the 22 year old when he encountered a “major failure” soon after returning to the race which impacted his braking ability.

Oscar Piastri of Australia and McLaren had a nightmare in Miami

“I had a lot of issues on the car in the race,” Piastri said.

“We had some kind of major failure about six or seven laps in … I was managing a lot of issues after that.

“I had a really good lap one which was the highlight of the weekend I think but yeah, a frustrating afternoon just trying to drive around the conditions.”

Had fun at the start but an issue cemented a tough weekend for us. We regroup as we prepare for the triple header. #OP81#F1#MiamiGP 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/tHwAmH6zp5

— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) May 7, 2023

The Melburnian’s Miami misery continued a worrying trend of bad luck which has plagued Piastri early in his Formula One career.

His debut in Bahrain lasted just 14 laps before he was forced to retire from the race and the following round in Saudi Arabia was cruelled by early damage to his front wing.

At his home race in Melbourne Piastri was finally gifted some good luck when he avoided the carnage from three red flags to finish eighth and bag his first points in Formula One.

But in Baku last time out he was struck down by food poisoning, battling gamely to finish just outside of the points in 11th while Norris snuck in for ninth.

After the floor upgrades in Baku seemingly put some pace back into the slow-going McLaren there was hope Miami would offer a chance for more points.

Instead, the combination of a shocking soft tyre strategy and Piastri’s software situation left the young Aussie to simply make up the numbers.

Originally published as Miami Grand Prix 2023: Oscar Piastri endures a McLaren strategy disaster - again