Why Piastri realised “instantly” pitting too late was a race-losing decision

Oscar Piastri admitted McLaren’s decision not to pit him for intermediate tyres with team mate Lando Norris was “painful” after he finished 12 seconds off victory in the British Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver went from racing for the victory just behind his team mate to finishing off the podium at Silverstone after losing a lot of time staying out on slick tyres around an increasingly wet track.

Rain had begun to fall over the circuit in the mid-phase of the race as the two McLarens sat first and second, Norris leading Piastri, ahead of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, with Max Verstappen in fifth. Verstappen was first of those to pit for intermediates at the end of lap 26, after which Norris entered the pits at the end of the next lap. However, team mate Piastri was not brought in along with him and was instead made to complete another lap of the increasingly wet circuit on his old medium tyres.

Piastri eventually came in at the end of lap 28, but had lost so much time on that final lap that he emerged from the pit lane in sixth place. Having been eight tenths of a second behind his team mate before Norris pitted, he fell over 18 seconds behind by the time he rejoined the track.

After finishing the race in fourth, he admitted it was frustrating to have lost a potential chance at his first victory.

“I don’t think it gets any harder than that,” Piastri told media including RaceFans after the race.

“I think there’s some things to review. I think double-stacking would have been the right call, but hindsight’s a wonderful thing. I think we need to see if we had any information that told us that was going to be a better choice. Obviously a little bit painful given the gap.”

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Piastri lost several seconds through the final sector as he continued out on track and then through the opening sector of the following lap.

“As soon as I went past pit entry,the last couple of corners were very, very tough,” he explained. “I could see on my dash that Lando was like five seconds behind me when I pitted, so I knew I was in a lot of trouble with him. I knew it was the wrong call basically instantly.

“I think we just need to review if we put enough weight on that decision. Obviously when the two cars are close like that you lose a lot of time doing a double-stack. The conditions were getting trickier but it was very, very hard to judge. It was only really half of the track that was really difficult until the lap that I stayed out and then the whole track became difficult. So very difficulty for everybody involved, but, in hindsight, double-stacking would have given a very good chance of winning.”

Despite the race-losing call not to bring him in with his team mate, Piastri believes McLaren’s strategy management was otherwise very strong throughout the challenging conditions on Sunday.

“I think every other decision we absolutely nailed in that race,” he said. “Me and Lando put ourselves in a great position getting to the lead. I think the decision in hindsight to put the medium on was the right call. We were the quickest at the end, so just a shame that we weren’t in a better position in the middle of the race.

“I knew if I got in front then it would be my priority in the pits so that’s why I say it’s one of the hardest decisions because I’m trying to get the lead, give myself priority. The team don’t know what car’s going to come in first to the pits. It’s just incredibly tough for everybody.”

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Piastri admitted it was “probably a good thing I didn’t open my radio,” when he saw that his team mate was closing up behind him while he was making his way back to the pits on his slick tyres.

“[I was] obviously frustrated at that point, but I knew that there was rain still coming. After the first couple of laps I could see that the cars ahead had clearly used up their inters a lot in the first couple of laps, so I was actually optimistic at that point. But then I hit the same wall as everyone else.

“I knew we would have more chances later in the race with getting back onto the slicks, [with] the choice of tyres we had. So I knew there’d be more opportunities, so I tried to give ourselves the best opportunity of trying to win.”

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