'A happy surprise': Piastri's fourth place one to savour
Monday, 10 July 2023
Oscar Piastri feels McLaren has more to come after a stunning British Grand Prix, which saw the F1® rookie finish less than a second from a maiden podium finish.
Oscar Piastri was beaming about the present and optimistic about the future after a stunning British Grand Prix for McLaren, the F1® rookie finishing a career-best fourth after a weekend where McLaren emerged as Red Bull Racing's closest – and unlikeliest – challenger at its home race.
McLaren had struggled to keep pace with the midfield teams for most of the opening eight races before signs of a revival sprouted in Austria the previous weekend, where Piastri's teammate Lando Norris raced a heavily-revised MCL60 machine to fourth place.
Any thoughts that Norris' efforts on arguably his strongest circuit were a one-off were cast aside at Silverstone, with Piastri getting his hands on the revisions – which included an updated sidepod design, a new floor, new engine cover and halo fairing and numerous cooling amendments – for the first time.
Piastri qualified a stunning third on Saturday – the first time a rookie had qualified inside the top three since Lance Stroll for Williams at the 2017 Italian Grand Prix – and retained that position for the opening 29 laps before pitting to take on hard tyres for the run to the chequered flag.
A lap 33 safety car caused by Kevin Magnussen's expired Haas gave Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) a free pit stop to jump Piastri, and while the Australian couldn't pass the seven-time world champion in the closing laps, he wasn't overly lamenting the loss of a potential podium afterwards.
"The most pleasing aspect was that we achieved these results on merit," Piastri said.
"It's one thing to get these results by lucking into them, but we were genuinely the second-quickest team today, which a very happy surprise. We were, on my side, unlucky with the safety car timing with Lewis, but it's nice in some ways to be disappointed with a fourth place considering where we were at the start of the year.
"It's a massive credit to the team – clearly the upgrades we've brought to the car are working an absolute treat, so exciting times for the future. It's nice to be back towards the front."
Piastri hadn't raced higher than sixth place – for six total laps – before Sunday, where he spent all but one lap inside the top five. While Silverstone's combination of low track temperatures and high-speed corners played to McLaren's strengths, Piastri felt the uptick in performance was sustainable, based on the past two races.
"At some tracks we have some weaknesses, and some tracks we have some very clear strengths," he said.
"Silverstone is probably good for our car, I would say, but we thought Austria might be an outlier and we've been even stronger here. So it's nice to have that performance two races in a row, and we'll be pushing to keep that going forward."
With Norris finishing second, McLaren leapfrogged Alpine into fifth place in the constructors' standings by scoring more points in one race (30) than it had all season (29) before Sunday. Amid jubilant scenes in front of a British crowd that relished one of its home teams fighting at the front, Piastri had bigger prizes in mind.
"It's a very happy moment for McLaren. It's nice to be back at the front, and we don't want to be finishing fifth in the constructors' – we want to be eventually try to challenge the top," he said.
"We've got a long way to go to challenge the next few teams. But anything's possible if we can keep having weekends like this."
Oscar's British Grand Prix by the numbers
- Qualified: 3rd
- Race: 4th
- Pit stops/tyres: Lap 29 (medium/hard)
- Fastest lap: 1min 30.850secs (4th), lap 41
- Points this event: 12
- Points this season: 17 (11th in world championship)
