Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2023

Canadian GP crash was “the first wall I’ve hit in five years” – Piastri

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In the round-up: McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri says his first F1 crash, which occurred in Canada, “was going to happen at some stage.”

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In brief

Piastri not “too disappointed” by qualifying crash

Piastri qualified ninth for the Canadian Grand Prix, marking the fourth time in his rookie Formula 1 season that he has started a race from inside the top 10, but hit the wall in Q3. “It’s never nice to crash, and it’s honestly I think the first wall I’ve hit in five years,” he told media.

“It was going to happen at some stage, I guess, but I think even with how the penalties worked out and stuff like that, I don’t know how much more there would have been than P8, so I wasn’t too disappointed.

“Obviously it’s a shame to end that way and cause the damage. Now the team have to make extra parts, and a late night for the mechanics, so of course it’s never nice. But from a performance perspective, I wasn’t too disappointed. I was much more disappointed in Barcelona, I think, where we had a better chance to be at the front of the grid.”

At the previous race in Spain, Piastri qualified 10th while team mate Lando Norris put his McLaren third on the grid. Piastri finished a lapped 13th that weekend, and in Canada came home 0.669 seconds short of the points in 11th place.

Saudi Public Investment Fund sells McLaren shares

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The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund has sold its stake in the McLaren Group to the Bahrain sovereign fund Mumtalakat, according to a report from the Bahrain News Agency.

Mumtalakat is already the biggest shareholder of the McLaren Group, which includes its racing and road car divisions.

Sargeant surprised by tight midfield

Williams driver Logan Sargeant says he is surprised by how close the midfield pack is in his first season in Formula 1.

The rookie driver has yet to score a point in his opening eight rounds in F1. Asked what has been the biggest surprise about his season so far, Sargeant said he did not expect for the midfield to be as close this season as it has been over those first races.

“Obviously I knew the challenge, so I think nothing’s completely surprising in how difficult it is,” he said.

“But I think what was surprising was how close all the teams were – especially from around eighth to 20th is insane. So I’d say that’s the bit that was the most surprising of how small the margins are between the teams and drivers.”

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Comment of the day

As Max Verstappen continues to dominate Formula 1 with crushing win after crushing win, @david-br just wishes the double world champion faced more pressure…

Put it this way, since Spa last year we’ve seen Verstappen driving like a championship winner in the fastest car – he oozes confidence and skill. But we don’t see much if anything of the other, feistier Verstappen scrapping for wins or having to produce something really spectacular to beat a rival.

The closest driver to him just now, Alonso, is cautious and seems content with second place (the same happened back when he was in a Ferrari racing against Vettel). His team mate is nowhere and were he ever to challenge Max on track – in the way, say Rosberg did against Hamilton – he’d be immediately under intense pressure at Red Bull. Whatever they claim, they want Perez firmly in a support role only. So essentially there’s no jeopardy.

How does that compare with those seasons when Hamilton won at a canter? Just as uninspiring really. I don’t see how you get much pleasure in seeing such easy wins, but I’ve no issue if that’s what you enjoy. Not to say I’m not impressed by Verstappen’s performance this season. I’d just rather he was fighting harder for the win in some races at least.
David BR

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Logan00Si and Irishf1!

On this day in motorsport

  • On this day in 1968 Jackie Stewart won the Dutch Grand Prix, scoring the first victory for Matra.

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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9 comments on “Canadian GP crash was “the first wall I’ve hit in five years” – Piastri”

  1. Profile Photo

    SteveR (@stever)
    23rd June 2023, 1:05

    But now’s the time for bold decisions. We need a genuine step change or we risk losing important ground and stalling on our continued commitment to advancing sustainability as a strategic priority.

    Nice PR speak there Zak.

    1. notagrumpyfan
      23rd June 2023, 9:26

      Maybe for McLaren to become more successful and geen they need less Brown.

  2. elvira
    23rd June 2023, 3:09

    “For this to happen at pace, now is the time to level the playing field so teams can work towards achieving the same targets and no longer have to choose between investing in car performance and investing in sustainability. It’s an impossible choice.
    Our sport needs a clear regulatory framework with financial, technical and sporting regulations that better enable us all to innovate and invest in sustainability. And if we want to achieve a step change with the new set of 2026 regulations, then those decisions need to be made now.”
    PU lobbying worked an absolute treat for Redbull.

  3. S
    23rd June 2023, 4:23

    “There is the suspicion that the top teams exploit their parallel activities to conduct useful research also on the F1 front, thus bypassing the expenditure ceiling, given that these are areas not included in the ‘budget cap’.”

    Suspicion? Surely everyone knows they are doing it, right? Who actually thinks the big F1 teams are truly playing by both the wording and the intent of the rules?
    As if. Getting caught cheating in F1 isn’t even a big deal.

    F1 seats should be based on merit not money

    That would require that F1 also not be based on money. F1 is at least 100% about money.

    1. SteveP
      23rd June 2023, 10:42

      Who actually thinks the big F1 teams are truly playing by both the wording and the intent of the rules?

      Could you by any chance point at a team where there isn’t a two-way transfer of knowledge and expertise between the F1 work and “other” interests?

    2. SadF1fan
      23rd June 2023, 11:15

      Every sport is about money.
      A top pair of athletic shoes can cost upwards of 1000 euros.
      Data analysis with an expert will cost you 1000 euros per session if not more.

      When you want to become a top athlete, meaning that you will have to dedicate 100% of your time to your sport, someone will need to finance that. It is about money.
      And investors aren’t going to their money on high risks with low results, because without Returns On Investments, investors go bankrupt.

      Sport isn’t a charity, being able to spend your whole life on what is essentially a game rather than real work is an extreme privilege only very few people get to experience.

  4. Profile Photo

    Urvaksh (@thedoctor03)
    23rd June 2023, 8:20

    A counter-view on the COTD.

    The fascinating thing about F1 is, that race after race, it offers something special to every F1 fan. Most F1 fans have a clear preference/support for a team and/or driver. There are 10 teams and 20 drivers to choose from. Given the cyclical nature of dominance in F1 (interjected by relatively rare seasons where 2 or 3 teams are in the fight till the very end), chances are that as a fan supporting a team and/or driver you will be subject to long periods of disappointment. Case in point, a Verstappen or Vettel fan would not have had an easy time watching in 2014-16 and 2019-20. That makes seasons like 2013 or 2023 great for them. I, for one, am loving the dominance from my favourite driver. In fact, I hope that every weekend is a walkover and he dominates because I have gone through so much of Hamilton dominance that I see this period as payback of sorts. The same feeling when Schumacher was dominating – I suffered so much from 1996-1999 that 2000-2004 were super enjoyable to the extent that when my friends stopped turning up to F1-watching parties I loved watching the races on my own knowing with confidence that my driver/team will win.

    Alas, as Vettel said in the last race of 2013, enjoy it while it lasts because after that you’re pretty much guaranteed a few seasons of waiting and hoping. And therein lies the joy of F1.

    1. Profile Photo

      David BR (@david-br)
      23rd June 2023, 15:49

      @thedoctor03 I can understand where you’re coming from. But I had pretty high hopes of Ferrari and Leclerc challenging Verstappen at the start of 2022. I’d have been fine with seeing that, whoever ended up winning. Obviously those hopes vanished by mid-season. But it’s left a kind of frustration that the ‘new era’ of F1 – where I think a lot of things are better especially the ability of cars to follow closely and the vanishing of so much focus on ‘tyre conservation’ – hasn’t included the kind of intense title battle of 2021, or even a tiny bit of uncertainty.
      (Thanks for COTD)

  5. notagrumpyfan
    23rd June 2023, 9:34

    I’m using a QWERTY keyboard, except during Francophile week when I change it to AZERTY.
    This year though I will instead do a chat with people from the French speaking community.

Comments are closed.