Piastri is back to his F1 best in Qatar, this is McLaren’s theory why

McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andrea Stella says Oscar Piastri’s return to form in Qatar fits within his high-grip theory about the Australian. 

Piastri struggled for pace compared to team-mate Lando Norris at low-grip circuits in Austin and Mexico, and also saw Norris beat him in Brazil and Las Vegas. But the Australian was back to his very best this weekend in Qatar, taking a clean sweep of sprint qualifying, the sprint race and pole for grand prix qualifying – his first since Zandvoort at the end of August. 

Pole for the grand prix could very well have gone to Norris, who felt he still had a few tenths in the bank but made a mistake at the start of his final flying lap in Q3. But there’s little question that Piastri is firing on all cylinders again, and according to his team principal  it’s not a coincidence that the Australian’s revival comes at the high-downforce Losail circuit – the antithesis of Austin and Mexico in terms of surface grip available. 

“Even when we were commenting on Oscar struggling a little bit, I’ve always emphasised that there are technical aspects in the way the drivers exploit the grip available and the potential in the car,” Stella explained. 

“And here in Qatar, we go back to the category of circuits with high grip. And in the category of circuits of high grip, I think Oscar is in his most natural way of driving the car, and he can really maximise the potential available. 

“At circuits like Mexico, Austin, especially in terms of braking and rotation of the car, you need to slide the rear axle. It’s almost kind of a different technique of driving a Formula 1 car, and it’s a technique that Oscar is developing, but actually it’s in the category where Lando excels.” 

Stella doesn’t believe Piastri’s slump had a mental component as he lost control of the drivers’ championship to Norris. 

“I don’t think it has much to do with mindset, mentality,” he argued. “Oscar has been very solid from a mental point of view throughout, this is just a technical matter. We talk about professional sport at the highest level, and at this level, when you kind of give up 1% from a technical point of view, then you may lose a few positions because the competition is very strong.” 

If there’s one surprise Doha has thrown up, then it’s not the fact that McLaren has the fastest car, as expected, but exactly how it has generated that advantage over Red Bull and Mercedes.

McLaren’s usual happy hunting ground is the type of long, medium speed corners that Red Bull tends to struggle with, with Max Verstappen’s RB21 happier in high-speed, sudden changes of direction. 

That wasn’t quite the case in Qatar, with McLaren particularly rapid in the extremely high speed final sector, while Red Bull – and especially Mercedes – seemed able to go toe-to-toe with its MCL39 in the medium-speed second sector and the first two corners. 

“We expected this track to suit the strengths of our car, but the way in which we are fast is not exactly how we would have anticipated,” Stella pointed out. “We are gaining a lot of lap time in corners 4 and 5, and then in the high-speed section, especially in the last sector you see that we are always purple. But in reality, I was expecting to be fast in the medium-speed corners like corner 1, last corner, or the middle sector. 

“I think this also depends on the way you set up the car or the way you have developed the car. We’ve definitely done some work to improve the high-speed. And at the same time, I think what we might have seen is that Red Bull might have gone almost in an opposite direction in terms of compromising possibly some of the strengths in high-speed to gain more potential in low-speed. 

“Actually, the best car in the medium-speed corners here in Qatar is Mercedes. The reality is that everything is very, very close. I think it’s a fair representation of the fact that the regulations are very mature and now everyone is converging.”

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– The Autosport.com Team