(Motorsport-Total.com) – McLaren driver Oscar Piastri provided one of the unexpected surprises at the Japanese Grand Prix: After the 24-year-old Australian was unable to participate in the first two races of the season at all, he raced to second place in Suzuka – and received great praise from team principal Andrea Stella for it.
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“Although Oscar missed the first two main races, we have – based on his performances in testing, practice, and qualifying as well as his attitude and mental strength – in my opinion seen the best version of Oscar, the strongest Oscar since his Formula 1 debut,” says Stella.
“I think he finally had the opportunity to prove this, and he used it in his own way. Two races, especially the home race, where you are not ready to start due to a completely avoidable situation, can really slow you down.”
Stella: “Definitely a boost for the entire team”
But Piastri apparently did not let the difficult start to the season throw him off course. “Above all, we saw his consistency and his strength – a strength that he also passed on to the team,” reveals the McLaren team principal, underlining how important the Australian is for the team as well.
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“Because the team draws a lot of inspiration from the charismatic leadership role of the drivers, and that was definitely a boost for the entire team to overcome the adversities,” Stella adds. “So, really a big praise for Oscar for his start to the season.”
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In the drivers’ championship, Piastri has moved within four points of teammate Lando Norris after his second place in Suzuka, who finished in fifth place in both Australia and Japan. Nevertheless, the current world champion team is overall not yet where they had hoped to be before the start.
McLaren: Chassis “improve by a few tenths of a second”
Now it is up to McLaren to provide both Norris and Piastri with a car with which they can fight for victories again. “To be honest, we were surprised ourselves [in Suzuka] that we were able to win,” the team principal admits.
Stella is aware, however, that the performance in Miami cannot be automatically repeated: “If we want to consistently deliver this performance in the future, we have to improve the chassis by a few tenths of a second,” explains the Italian. “And that is exactly our goal with the upcoming upgrades.”
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