Piastri finds positives from eighth-place start
Matt Clayton
Sunday, 3 March 2024
A year after McLaren struggled mightily in Bahrain, Oscar Piastri was optimistic better results were on the horizon after scoring four points to kick off his second F1® season on Saturday.
Oscar Piastri took a glass half-full approach to assessing his season-opening eighth place in the Bahrain Grand Prix, the McLaren driver optimistic for the upcoming races despite his Saturday night in Sakhir not hitting any great heights.
The Australian, who qualified eighth 24 hours earlier, looked a chance of holding off Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton for seventh in the middle stages of the race before a slow final pit stop on lap 34 saw him fall behind the seven-time world champion as they ran side by side into Turn 1.
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Piastri would eventually finish five seconds behind Hamilton but under no threat from behind, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso crossing the line 18secs adrift.
“Not a terrible way to start the year – I think we had some good moments and some bad moments in the race, but I think we’re about where we expected to be honest,” Piastri said.
“It was close between everyone, I felt between Lewis and (McLaren teammate) Lando (Norris), (Mercedes’) George Russell and even (Ferrari’s Charles) Leclerc at one point, it just felt we’d catch each other a tenth (of a second), lose a tenth … we’re close but not quite close enough to really fight.
“I knew without a big mistake from someone around me that I was probably going to finish where I was for the second half of that race.
“You always try to stay in the fight. The guys in the field are pretty good, especially Lewis – he’s had a bit of success! – so I thought the likelihood was pretty low, but I tried to stay in the fight. You pray for that mistake to happen, but it didn’t happen today.”
Piastri came good when it counted in qualifying after just scraping through to Q3, denying RB’s Yuki Tsunoda a top-10 berth by 0.007secs on Friday night. He improved his best lap time by half a second in the top-10 shootout, which was key to him starting his 2024 campaign with points in the opening race.
“I’m excited to see what the next few races have got in store for us because historically this place has not been too friendly to us (and) the next few races have been quite friendly to us,” Piastri said.
“It was nice to get back out there and be racing, it felt like I raced just last week. It felt pretty natural jumping back in, so not a bad way to start the year.”
Oscar's Bahrain Grand Prix by the numbers
- Qualified: 8th
- Race: 8th
- Fastest lap: 1min 34.983secs (11th), lap 39
- Points this event: 4
- Points this season: 4 (8th in world championship)
