McLaren plays up ‘fantastic job’ by Piastri in Mexico City

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella praised Oscar Piastri following his “fantastic job” in last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix in which the Aussie scored an eighth-place finish in challenging conditions.

Piastri was left stranded in Q1 on Saturday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez after a costly mistake, which positioned the McLaren charger a lowly P17 on Sunday’s grid.

On a track where overtaking opportunities are typically few and far between, the 23-year-old made steady progress, relying on an extended 39-lap opening stint – the longest of any driver on the medium tyre – that carried him well into the top ten.

After switching to the hard rubber, he once again made leeway to conclude his race P8, just behind Hass’ Kevin Magnussen, leaving Stella thoroughly impressed.

“With Oscar, pretty much he finished where we thought he would finish without being able to overtake anyone easily,” commented the McLaren chief.

“It wasn’t easy to overtake. This means that we lost that little time that meant we couldn’t pass the second Haas, which was our realistic target.

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“With some more pace, and with some easier overtaking, then this could have been a target. And once again, I would like to remind that Oscar didn’t have the upgraded car, so he did a fantastic job in getting back into the points.

“The championship will go to the wire, and these points are important.”

During both of his stints, Piastri battled with Williams rookie Franco Colapinto, emerging ahead of the Argentine in both instances, but gaining the upper hand of the latter had been tougher than he expected.

“In the first stint, he was not too slow,” Piastri said. “I think after I pitted, he had quite a big moment and then defended very hard, which I think cost both of us a lot of time.

“But he can do what he wants, doesn’t have to make my life easy. So yeah, it was a bit tougher than I expected to get through, but once we had some clean air the pace was good.”

Stella reckoned that Lando Norris’ own frantic fight against Max Verstappen in the early stages of the race had ultimately proved costly given the Briton’s strong pace in the second half of the event.

“I thought the Ferraris were faster today, but as we were going through the first stint, actually Lando, as soon as he got clear of Verstappen, showed that he had very competitive pace,” Stella said.

“And then, in the second stint, actually proved that the pace was as fast as Ferrari.

“So in hindsight, now, when I look at the incidents in the early laps of the race, there’s a little bit of disappointment.

“Without that couple of incidents, I think Lando could have fought for the victory today.”

Ferrari’s strong weekend in Mexico saw the Scuderia seize the runner-up spot in F1’s Constructors’ standings from Red Bull, while McLaren’s lead in the championship was reduced to 29 points.

Formula 1’s contenders will reconvene next weekend in Sao Paulo for the final leg of the sport’s triple-header in the Americas.

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