While Lando Norris celebrated a dominant victory at the Dutch Grand Prix, his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri was left reflecting on a “pretty painful” race at Zandvoort. Despite starting third on the grid, Piastri’s race quickly turned into a frustrating affair as he struggled to make progress, ultimately finishing 27 seconds behind Norris and missing out on the podium.
Piastri’s race unraveled from the start. Both McLarens lost ground off the line, but the Australian found himself stuck behind George Russell’s Mercedes for a significant portion of the race. Even after clearing Russell following the first round of pit stops, Piastri was unable to make a dent in Charles Leclerc’s defenses, despite having a better tire strategy. The dirty air from Leclerc’s Ferrari kept Piastri at bay, preventing him from mounting any serious challenge for third place.
“[The race result] started with qualifying, just not being competitive enough when it mattered,” Piastri admitted. “The start obviously didn’t help things, but it just kind of boxed us in a little bit. I think the pace in clean air was quite strong and clearly the car was quick today. I just spent about 60 of the 70 laps within a second of the car in front, so that made life pretty painful.”
While Norris was able to capitalize on the upgraded MCL38’s impressive pace, overtaking Max Verstappen on Lap 18 and pulling away to a 22-second victory, Piastri’s race was defined by frustration. The Hungarian GP winner acknowledged that his teammate’s performance highlighted the potential of the car, but also emphasized that he wasn’t quite on Norris’s level throughout the weekend.
“Ultimately, this weekend I don’t think I was quite at Lando’s level, so there’s definitely some things to work on there,” Piastri said. “Being stuck behind traffic made my afternoon and my weekend look a bit more painful than it was in terms of pace, so it’s only a good thing that the car is that quick. I just need to make sure that I’m joining in on the fun.”
Despite the difficulties, Piastri found some positives in his weekend, particularly his strong showing in Friday practice and parts of qualifying. However, he acknowledged that the combination of a poor start and being stuck in traffic set the tone for a challenging race.
“When your teammate wins by 20 seconds, clearly there’s things to work on and improve, so I’ll try and make sure that I’m back in the game next week,” Piastri concluded.
As the F1 circus heads to Monza, Piastri will be eager to bounce back and close the gap to Norris, while McLaren aims to continue its resurgence with the upgraded MCL38.
Photo from Oscar Piastri Instagram
