After failing to win the Belgian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri has fallen out of favor with McLaren manager Andrea Stella.
After his disastrous second pit stop at the Belgian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri has taken issue with Andrea Stella, the principal of the McLaren team. After shunting into his jackman, the Australian took 4.4 seconds in the pits, which is more than twice as long as a driver typically needs to change a tire.
Piastri eventually finished less than a second behind race winner Lewis Hamilton, who took the lead after George Russell, his Mercedes teammate, was disqualified.
However, the 23-year-old is certain that his pit stop delay did not prevent him from winning a second straight race after his victory in Hungary one week prior.
Piastri said, “It wasn’t my best moment.” However, considering the big picture, I don’t think it cost all that much.
“I believe it implied that I would have likely finished the race one or two more laps behind Lewis and George. However, there is undoubtedly something I wish to make better for all the other races.
When he discussed it just after the race, Stella, on the other hand, was less at ease and called it “expensive.”
Stella clarified, “I think Oscar realized that would have been a bit costly, since potentially he would have been queued behind Hamilton but he might also have been in condition to attack. So he apologized for the pit stop right away on the in-lap on the radio.
Thus, I believe that this 1.5–2 second deficit at the pit stop ultimately turned out to be really expensive. Moreover, at that point, he would have gotten behind [Charles] Leclerc sooner on newer tires, making the overtake easier to complete.
“We do need to work with drivers to make sure they don’t overdo it at the pit stop position—even in really hot conditions, as this can be highly expensive. I believe we also experienced something comparable at Silverstone.
Mercedes has been having a comeback on the track lately, but Hamilton has already won two of the last three races. The seven-time world champion has moved up to fifth place in the Drivers’ Championship rankings, however he has decided to leave the Silver Arrows and will sign for Ferrari before the 2019–20 season.
In the news conference held following the race, Hamilton clarified, saying, “It would be high hopes [after the summer break].” However, if we can maintain the level of performance we’ve shown in the previous few races—which have been amazing—I believe we can if we can slightly improve the way we start our weekends.
“It’s evident that McLaren was really strong today, although we had a slight early advantage. However, we must continue to make progress.