Oscar Piastri has shown he can be McLaren No.1 over Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri is only 39 races into his Formula 1 career but with victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix he showed again why he is such a talented driver. The most impressive attribute the McLaren driver has – alongside the natural talent and raw speed, of course – is his ability to learn.

In his debut season alongside the more experienced Lando Norris he fared well, finishing with 97 points to his teammate’s 205 and two podiums to seven. This season he has taken another step with two victories to his name. Since Max Verstappen’s last win in Spain in June, Piastri is the leading points scorer.

Oscar Piastri was all smiles after winning in Baku.Credit: Getty Images

In Baku, I believe he took a car that was a podium contender and turned it into a race-winning car through his driving and race strategy. That is a quality we see from only the very best drivers.

There are so many that operate in this grey area where the same problem arises time and time again and that means they are not learning. Piastri can take in what is going on and apply the knowledge to get out of that situation when it arises again.

Of course, every new F1 driver learns a lot but learning is one thing – improvement will always come with experience. Putting those lessons into practice is another. Piastri has been a master at that. Perhaps he does not quite have the outright speed that Norris has, but he is able to match him very closely over a race distance.

‘Weaknesses eradicated’

His biggest weakness last year in comparison to Norris was managing his tyres during a race. While the pair were closely matched in qualifying, this led to a greater gap appearing on Sundays. That weakness has almost been eradicated in 2024 with Piastri’s tyre management and knowledge a crucial part of Sunday’s winning drive.

In Baku, Piastri was able to look after his rear tyres in a way that at the end of the race paid big dividends, with Charles Leclerc falling back. Piastri did his utmost to get into the lead as soon as he could because he knows “clean air is king”. In the first stint you could see he was falling away from Leclerc as he was caught in the dirty air. That lesson was learnt in the second stint as he approached Leclerc. He made a bold move for the lead from a long way back that caught the Ferrari driver by surprise. Another couple of laps and his tyres might not have been up to that and he, not Leclerc, would have spent 30-odd laps in dirty air with the chances of a win fading.

A lot of the talk since Monza has been about team orders, No.1 and No.2 drivers at McLaren and favouring Norris and his championship attempt. Having two talented and closely matched drivers is a positive for McLaren but also comes with its downsides, as we are already seeing in 2024. With Piastri’s rapid improvement, I think it will continue to be a problem as long as those two are at the team and they have a competitive car.

We have seen teams have a clear No.1 and No.2 driver but with McLaren it is a little bit greyer. How can the team manage this next season? Firstly, they need to come up with a set of rules before the season starts. I would let them race freely for the first half of the season or so, under the usual caveat of not taking undue risks.

Then when you reach a certain point midway through the season you assess the drivers’ championship and if one driver has an obvious advantage you give him priority. That would not necessarily mean always asking one driver to cede position but perhaps having priority when it comes to strategy, new parts and so on.

If I was looking at a driver for the future, though, it would be Piastri. Yes, Norris has more experience but he seems to be more error-prone and that has hampered his championship hopes this year. Piastri seems to be able to eliminate those mistakes better.

The opening lap in Monza two weeks ago was also a good demonstration of the Australian’s skills. In those first two braking zones you are going into the unknown as far as tyre grip is concerned but Piastri just seemed to have more confidence on the brakes as he took the lead from his teammate. He was able to push the car to a different level and closer to the limit than Norris. Again, he had a chance and he took it.

He is a very capable racing driver and he is going to win a lot of races.

The Telegraph, London

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