'Massive Shame' For Piastri In Vegas After 'Absolutely Brilliant' Drive Says Stella

Thursday, 23 November 2023 at 00:00

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella commented on the performance of his driver, Oscar Piastri, at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

McLaren's F1 driver Oscar Piastri scored two points last weekend at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, finishing in P10 and putting in the fastest lap.

While two points are not what McLaren was looking for ahead of the weekend, the team principal said the Australian was 'absolutely brilliant' in the race. He told the media:

"It was just a massive shame because Oscar was absolutely brilliant."

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The McLaren driver started the Las Vegas Grand Prix from P18 and crossed the line in P10. Moving up eight positions is a great result by itself, but Piastri could have finished close to the podium had he not had the incident with Lewis Hamilton.

"It's a shame because we had started the race on Hard tires, we needed to pit before the due time because of the contact with [Lewis] Hamilton [on Lap 16]."

Both drivers suffered a puncture and had to pit their cars right after the collision and contact between them was deemed a racing incident by stewards.

It was unfortunate for the McLaren driver to have to box that early in the race because starting on the hard tires meant he probably wanted to extend the stint a lot longer and could have gone for a one-stop strategy.

On the other hand, Stella admitted the safety cars did not favor their predetermined strategy either way, as they would have to add one stop at the end of the race.

"With the Safety Car placed where it was placed, it was always going to be a bit of an unfavourable race for somebody that started on the Hard, because you would have needed to add a stop at the end."

The second McLaren driver, Lando Norris, crashed his car on lap three, so he did not collect a single point in Las Vegas. McLaren goes into the season's last race this week with an 11-point gap to defend from Aston Martin in fifth place.