by VALERIO BARRETTA
Piastri, half protagonist in Miami
Behind the Lando Norris fairy tale that finally came true in Miami, there is a hidden character who has not taken any limelight. It’s his teammate Oscar Plateswho also beat him in the Sprint Qualifying while he was second for a long time in the race, before the Safety Car came out.
The safety car entered the track just one lap after the Australian’s stop: if he too (and not just Norris) had waited a few minutes, there could have been a McLaren one-two in Miami. Piastri, however, slipped to fourth place, and thanks to the battle (and contact) with Carlos Sainz he had to drop to the back. In short, a capital performance, ruined by the episodes.
Stella’s words
McLaren team principal Andrea Star however, he has the task of analyzing a race weekend at 360°, without allowing himself to be influenced by the final result. And precisely for this reason the Umbrian underlined the driving quality of the 2001 class: “I believe that Oscar will come away from this weekend even more aware of his strengths. We must give him due credit: the gap he had from Lando in qualifying (81 thousandths, ed.) it was less than the difference between the cars“, this is the comment from Stella, who refers to the fact that McLaren gave Norris the complete updates and Piastri a “half” package.
“His race performance was once again very good. Oscar managed to maintain a high pace in the first stint. So, I think he comes out of the Miami weekend with more awareness especially on race pace, and that’s something we wanted to improve.“, has continued. “What’s more, he once again demonstrated his value as a team player: it’s clear that he wasn’t happy when we told him that he wouldn’t have the complete package straight away, but he never let us down. He understood the reason and was immediately supportive, like the entire entourage around Oscar”.
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