F1 boss’ stunning Piastri praise as ‘exceptional’ moment vindicates ugly switch

Oscar Piastri’s debut season has started in spectacular fashion, but it hasn’t stopped him from making a huge impression on the grid.

Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images

Oscar Piastri has outperformed expectations in his rookie Formula 1 season, according to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.

Piastri arrived at McLaren at the start of the season as a highly rated junior champion but having sat out of the cockpit for a season as Alpine’s reserve driver.

A messy split with the French team over a contract dispute allowed him to take the place vacated by the well-liked but underperforming Daniel Ricciardo in the Woking line-up, which ratcheted up the pressure on his already expectation-loaded maiden campaign.

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His first year on the grid has also been made more difficult by McLaren’s competitive step backwards relative to last year’s performances.

But Stella says Piastri has taken it all in his stride, so much so that he’s already doing better than the team anticipated just seven rounds into his F1 career.

“So far his performance is possibly beyond what we expected,” Stella told Racer. “Like the way he has been able to generate speed, right from the start the way he’s been able to progress — which was the main target we had — lap by lap, session by session, event by event. This has worked extremely well.

“The way he’s also been able to cope with adversity, like in Miami, after six laps he found himself with a big issue with the brake pedal.

“To be honest, we thought we should retire the car, but he managed to change the way he was braking, making some adjustments to actually finish the race.

“We knew there wasn’t any chance to fight for points, but it was important experience, we wanted to stay in the race, and the way he came out of it was exceptional.”

Zipping around the streets of Monaco. (Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images)

Aside from his impressive on-track exploits, Stella has also been impressed by Piastri’s attitude in his first full-time campaign as an F1 driver.

“All of this has happened with Oscar, and what is a very interesting feature is he’s not really advertising himself, not really highlighting it,” he said.

“He keeps being very humble, which is a beautiful trait, from a personal point of view. So he lets facts and results speak for themselves.”

Speaking ahead of last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix just a few days after scoring points in a tricky wet-dry race in Monte Carlo, Piastri said he felt he was meeting his own expectations at this point in his career.

“I think I’m about where I would have wanted to be,” he said. “I think over one lap, especially at the last few events, it’s been quite close, which has been nice.

“I think throughout the race distances it’s always been a little bit tricky to compare because I’ve always had stuff going wrong, quite frankly.

“I’ve been focusing very much on my personal development and just making sure I extract the most out of myself and having Lando there as a reference is quite useful for that.

“I feel like I’m in a good spot. Just continuing to learn every weekend.”

Piastri is showing promising signs in his rookie season. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Despite his own strong performances, Piastri endured a difficult weekend in Spain to a distant 13th place despite starting ninth.

McLaren enjoyed an unusually competitive qualifying session on Saturday thanks to the cold and damp track, but in a more representative conditions the MCL60 couldn’t compete and ended the day as the eighth-quickest car in racing trim.

“Just a long afternoon,” Piastri said after the race. “Just didn’t have the pace to really do anything.

“I don’t think we really had the pace to stay in the points anyway.

“We’ll have a look at why we struggled so much today. We have some good ideas already, but a disappointing afternoon.

“I think [qualifying] was obviously not expected. I don’t think we’re in normal circumstances able to put the car that high up the grid.

“Today was maybe a bit more back to reality — probably a more difficult day than what we would’ve hoped even considering that.”

Piastri has scored points twice this season, in Australia and Monaco, to tally five points from seven rounds and sit 13th in the standings.

Teammate Lando Norris has accumulated 12 points for 11th in the standings, while McLaren sits sixth in the constructors championship some 23 points behind Alpine.

The team is anticipating a B-spec car upgrade arriving in time for the British Grand Prix next month.

Originally published as F1 boss’ stunning Piastri praise as ‘exceptional’ moment vindicates ugly switch