Max Verstappen probably didn’t hear Oscar Piastri’s comments as he walked to the grid before the start of yesterday’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
But if he did, it would have been music to the ears of the Red Bull driver.Preparing to line up in his hard-won pole position, which he pipped Verstappen to by just three hundredths of a second the day before, Piastri was asked how important it was to keep that lead at the start.
“Obviously leading the race after the first corner would make life a lot easier but I don’t think it’s the be-all-and-end-all here,” he replied. “So let’s see what happens, but I’m pretty confident that we’ve got the pace to win regardless.”
Keeping track position over a key rival in F1 is ‘not the be-all-and-end-all’? In a series where overtaking is so hard? When we’ve seen so many times this year how much drivers’ tyres suffer in dirty air?
Piastri’s attitude was the exact opposite of what we see from his principal rival, Verstappen, every weekend. He invariably attacks the first corner of a race as if the victory depends on it, and he’s right to, because it often does.
Did the relative ease with which McLaren defeated Red Bull at the previous race lead Piastri to be complacent about their advantage? Although Piastri took several laps to pick his way past Verstappen in Miami, he went on to finish 40 seconds up the road.
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But that was not typical of the previous races. Prior to Miami, every grand prix this year had been won by the driver who led at the end of lap one – with a single exception.
That was Jeddah, where Verstappen and Piastri again shared the front row, this time with the Red Bull driver ahead. Piastri made a better start, claimed the first corner and forced Verstappen wide. The Red Bull driver stayed ahead, despite knowing a penalty was inevitable, precisely so that he could gain the benefit of running in clear air.
That example showed Piastri knows how to deal with Verstappen. But at Imola he stayed his hand, and it cost him badly.
Verstappen dropped back as they accelerated away from the line and shouldn’t have had a hope of taking the lead. But Piastri left the grippy racing line free for him and did not take his opportunity to force the Red Bull driver wide at the exit of the corner.
Piastri seemed far more concerned with covering off George Russell, a far lesser threat to his victory hopes than Verstappen. Russell was aghast at his rival’s positioning, despairing “fucking Piastri, what is he doing?” on his radio as he accelerated out of turn four.
It’s not hard to envisage how this scenario would have played out had the roles been reversed between Verstappen and Piastri. Not only would Verstappen not have left the outside line free in the first place, but had Piastri got part-way alongside, he would have been directed straight to the gravel bed.
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This is because Verstappen knows that being ahead absolutely is the ‘be-all-and-end-all’. Even if it means going off the track, even if it means forcing a rival off the track, his objective is to stay ahead and let the stewards agonise over whether to dish out a penalty to the race leader.
Verstappen is a no-holds-barred fighter who knows possessing the lead is everything. If either of McLaren’s drivers think they can beat him while needlessly playing to the Marquess of Queensberry Rules, they have no idea who they’re dealing with.
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2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
- Antonelli was tiring from home race at Imola attention by Friday – Wolff
- Ferrari struggling to recreate set-up which “worked well” in Shanghai – Hamilton
- Verstappen told Red Bull to use Tsunoda before “hold him up” call
- ‘Saturdays have been mine for years but for some reason it’s drifted away’ – Norris
- “Plan C?”: Why McLaren only got their strategy right for one driver at Imola
Riccard
19th May 2025, 12:17
This wasn’t about Piastri being too clean / too honourable / playing by Marquess of Queensberry Rules. Verstappen’s overtake was as clean as you’ll see.
This was about Piastri being caught napping, braking early, and not seeing Verstappen charge until he was already passing.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
19th May 2025, 21:24
The big difference between this year and last, is that typically this year, grid position is far more powerful than working through the field. This race was different, coupled with a fair passing opportunity and the ability to carry tires through a race, this meant :
Piastri could no longer rely on his ability to focus only on speed and how to defeat the overtake in order to degrade his opponents tires.
Piastri was forced to play a different game, one that Lando is far better at playing. The long game.
MacLeod (@macleod)
20th May 2025, 8:05
Correct! Oscar thought George was the bigger threat untill Max was next to him.
Leo B
19th May 2025, 12:24
It wasn’t losing the lead at the first corner. It was the strange call from McLaren to pit that did for Piastri. He should have stayed in the wake of Max and waited for the likely SC to come.
Then Norris got lucky with the SC as usual. Started whining and nagging. When Piastri’s tyres were shot Norris got through on new rubber to get at Max and made zero impression. He may as well have stayed where he was.
A bad day at the races for McLaren, team and drivers. Monaco will be a chance for Piastri to regain momentum.
Riccard
19th May 2025, 12:33
I don’t think a safety car was “likely”. Of course they’re always possible, but this isn’t typically a big crashing track – it took weird power failures to trigger the SC and VSC.
The bigger problem with pitting early (for all those who did it) was it seemed to be based on Russell continuing to hold up the others who didn’t pit… but Russell was the first to come in, so people following him were still stuck in a DRS chain. I feel like the teams had made the decision a lap or two sooner and didn’t react quickly enough when the situation changed.
Steve Rogers (@yossarian)
19th May 2025, 15:41
I mostly agree, but I think the early stoppers were mislead by Leclerc’s pace. Having stopped from 9th, in 2 laps he had undercut Russell in 4th. As the race went on it was apparent this was just the pace of the Ferrari with other early stoppers not seeing a huge offset in pace to those who hadn’t. But at the time I forgive the strategists for thinking they needed new rubber.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
19th May 2025, 13:20
You got any lemons left for a G n T ?
RH
19th May 2025, 20:21
Piastri was losing plenty of time to Max before pitting. It was the correct call, just check lap time data.
Conky81
20th May 2025, 10:29
2nd and 3rd isn’t a bad day. People have to understand that McLaren favour the constructor championship and play it slightly safe (smart).
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
19th May 2025, 12:37
Oscar is still learning the craft, and he has the opportunity to watch a Master at work … albeit from behind … if Lando doesn’t get in the way ;P
I wasn’t sure about Oscar at first – he seemed a bit tame and mild – but I’m thinking now it might be that he is just cold and calculating, looking at the long game rather than making any risky glory boy type moves.
It can better to hit the podium regardless of position every race, than only stand there half the time.
Whatever, I think McLaren should thank their lucky stars that they have two such top class drivers.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
19th May 2025, 13:22
Oscar finished third in a 2 horse race. This was not a good day at all but he escapes through some decisive overtakes coming through the field. Max had the luck of the devil with the SC timings, but he earns his luck
Matthijs (@matthijs)
19th May 2025, 14:09
Max was (very) lucky with the VSC, but not with the actual SC. That erased his giant lead.
Grapmg
19th May 2025, 15:06
Exactly. I think Max would have been better of without the (V)SCs. He already had a comfortable lead before the VSC and lost all advantage after the SC.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
19th May 2025, 15:09
Well he was able to have a free pit stop to stay on tyres in the SC that could keep him ahead of the stopping Lando. Without that its 2021
Jojo
19th May 2025, 15:30
Max was almost 9 seconds ahead of Norris before Norris pitted, so there was no way Norris was going to undercut him by that much. Norris came out 4 seconds behind Piastri who was 32 seconds behind Max, on old hard tyres. Without the VSC, all Verstappen would have had to do was pit the lap after Norris. He would have been ahead of Piastri by 4 seconds and Norris would have been behind him by 8 seconds. The only benefit of the VSC was the larger gap but the McLaren’s weren’t able to close the gap anyway.
Norris lost that race in qualy, Piastri lost it on lap 1.
Jojo
19th May 2025, 15:36
We saw later in the race that once the gaps were closer, Norris still lost time trying to pass Piastri and he could close the gap so Verstappen probably could have had a pit window by the time the full safety car arrived. With 17 laps to go when the safety car was called, Verstappen would have pitted regardless, as there was always going to be enough racing laps to pass the slower cars who stayed out on old tyres.
Grapmg
20th May 2025, 7:05
Imola 2021? I remember a red flag but was a completely different scenario with someone very lucky.
Conky81
20th May 2025, 10:31
A master at crashing lol. Look who’s still ahead in the championship. Your master is behind.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
20th May 2025, 14:57
Gotta love some internet people, pedantry being their major subject. It was a throw away phrase re 2021. Next you’ll tell me it isnt actually 2021 any more
David
19th May 2025, 12:50
An unfair appraisal of Piastri’s start. He did nothing wrong, moving out wide on the way into Tamburello would have just invited the fast-starting Russell to stick his nose in, and realistically would have put Piastri into no-man’s land in terms of track positioning.
He braked a little early because he was off line and the last thing he would want to do on cold tyres and the dirty part of the track is to slide off only a few seconds into the race.
It just so happened that Max was ruthless and fully committed to a move that I don’t think many on the grid could have pulled off. And one which Piastri gave him the fair amount of space for as well.
There have been a lot of comments online about what Oscar should have done which mostly seem to ignore the rules of space and time.
What really cost him the win was losing confidence in the tyres and going for the early stop in what turned out to just be the graining phase of the mediums. I’m sure driver and team will learn from that.
PeteB (@peteb)
19th May 2025, 14:44
It’s what sets the best apart from the average. Piastri didn’t want to make a mistake so he left a huge amount of room for error whereas Max knew he wouldn’t make a mistake so he left no room for error and made it stick.
We all know that if the roles were reversed, Max would have spotted Piastri braking late on the outside and would have let off the brakes to make sure he got to the apex first. He’d have then driven Piastri straight off the track even if it meant letting Russell past.
Max is always hyper-aware of the Championship fight and what is needed to win. Russell is irrelevant to him this year. The fight is between Piastri, Max and Lando. You have to score more points than the other 2 so you can’t let either of them past.
David BR (@david-br)
19th May 2025, 13:13
Against most drivers Piastri’s decision to focus on blocking Russell would have been fine. But, yes, against Verstappen it was the wrong decision and it’s really the first time Max has beaten him cleanly in this kind of situation. Verstappen’s pass was mesmerizing. Coulthard on the F1TV feed called it perfectly, saying he’d never seen anything like it. I think the response of blaming Piastri misses just how exceptional Max’s move was. It was perfect down to the milimeter and had to be stay on track and avoid the grael. It’s easy to say Piastri left space but that misses just how fast Verstappen had to decide to commit, really micro-seconds of mental processing and ability to calculate all the trajectories, lining up his speed, angle and trajectory perfectly. It was phenomenal. He can exceed the regulations sometimes – and he does so on purpose, assessing that the risk of the penalty is probably worth it – but the Imola start was supreme driving.
Ferdi
20th May 2025, 11:47
True, but hardly a surprise around here.
David BR (@david-br)
20th May 2025, 12:54
I think Piastri can and will learn from the experience but it’s the brilliance of the top drivers (and I’m including quite a lot of the current grid) to produce the unexpected, seizing a chance and execute it perfectly. Norris, for example, is excellent at planning a smart attack a lap or so ahead and making it work. But others like Verstappen and Alonso can produce these moments without forward planning. It’s what I tune in for.
Also in Piastri’s defence, I suspect complacency over the McLaren’s race speed stemmed from the team. They’re the ones who sift through the data and tell the drivers whether they have the advantage (and therefore how much to risk on, say, an opening lap moment).
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
19th May 2025, 13:19
Ha ha great piece and spot on. People anointing Piastri, including me, as a WDC in waiting have just seen why its not a given. If Lando, who is the quicker driver, finds a sweet spot in his Mclaren he will outqualify Oscar more often than not and then we are in for some fun
Ferdi
20th May 2025, 11:51
I think the nomination of Piastri for the WDC has more to do with the McLaren advantage, than where Piastri sits in his career at the moment. He is WDC material if he gets a WDC car. And he is still learning. So there is room for more. Vs Lando he will do great as he will prove to be far more consistent. So for now I will stick to Piastri for the title. If RB has however found something to bring Max back in contention (let’s not get ahead of ourselves based on one single race) that whole picture changes, but I do not see Lando as a title candidate. He might be faster, but never is consistently faster.
David BR (@david-br)
20th May 2025, 12:59
@tonymansell I don’t think Piastri did much wrong and he’s quite capable of learning from the error. He’s easily the least experienced of the front runners (Verstappen, Russell and Norris have far more). His race strategy, team-supplied, was terrible. On the plus side, he qualified ahead of Norris and not because the latter made some big mistake. Verstappen though remains a definite threat. If Red Bull can upgrade well over the next few races, he’ll be in real contention and then, realistically, it’s another title for him. Neither Piastri or Norris are his match.
Esmiz (@esmiz)
19th May 2025, 14:12
Piastri has started fewer GPs than Verstappen has won. I think he’s shown he’s a driver who quickly learns from his mistakes. This time Verstappen outbid him, and he himself admitted he braked too early. He’ll improve.
On the other hand, in this race, and specifically at that corner, I’ve seen the drivers be more respectful than usual. Is it because of the gravel? I think so, but not because they have “pity” for each other, but because if you push someone into the gravel at a chicane, they can spin out of control back onto the track, right in front of you. We need more gravel at more corners to stop that rule they’ve invented of “whoever is first at the apex can push the other guy off the track.”
Chris (@austin-healey)
19th May 2025, 15:52
I totally agree.
And I think that Oscar, having previously beaten Max into turn 1, was more focused on George.
He won’t be fooled again.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
19th May 2025, 20:22
Interesting stat about the gps won vs entered, I wouldn’t have thought.
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
20th May 2025, 14:00
Yeah crazy to think that Max at just age 27 is the 17th most experienced driver in the history of the sport.
He is the 4th most experienced driver of the current grid with 216 starts.
Only Hulkenberg with 234 starts, Hamilton with 363 starts and Alonso with 408 starts are more experienced whereby certainly Alonso but also Hamilton are the rare exceptions in the last 30 years or racing beyond 40.
PeteB (@peteb)
19th May 2025, 14:22
You have to fight fire with fire. Had it been Piastri trying that move around the outside of Verstappen, we all know how it would have played out.
Edvaldo
19th May 2025, 14:24
Piastri is having the taste of what is to be in control. He probably felt it was in the bag already and underestimated Max.
I’m sure he’s not making the same mistake again, he’s not Norris.
asz
19th May 2025, 15:12
Piastri said something concrete, an actual opinion that proved to be wrong = he is complacent.
Yes, it is so much better to hear all the bland, noncommital “we’ll see” and “let’s hope for…” type answers and hedges from drivers.
Grapmg
19th May 2025, 15:16
We can also argue that Piastri is a smart driver. To finish first first you have to finish. Prost won WDCs with that attitude collect points and don’t take unnecessary risks. Also remember Miami where Norris lost out on the first lap while McLaren had the pace to win anyway. With hindsight it cost him the win but without the V(SC) second would have been good enough and third isn’t that bad.
Edvaldo
19th May 2025, 15:32
He was not finishing 2nd anyway. The strategy was so bad that Norris, who was some 7 secs down the road came out of the pits with brand new tyres just 3 seconds behind him, with plenty of laps to go.
They had no gap for him to unleash the pace and force Max to pit and he was losing time with brand new tyres from the start, stuck in traffic in a track with just one overtaking spot. A completely brain-dead decision.
Grapmg
19th May 2025, 16:21
Maybe true but that is related to the strategy not related to the first lap loss to Max. I think Piastri had a good run through the field and showed how to do it without unnecessary risks. That also showed when he raced Norris at the end. Sometimes it’s better to take the loss but collect the points.
Mooa42
20th May 2025, 2:18
If you look at Piastri’s F3 and F2 seasons, he won these by taking a finish rather than binning it. Doesn’t appear to overdrive the car too often, just gets what he can and learns and improves.
Conky81
20th May 2025, 10:35
Exactly. And people seem to forget that racing against the brat Verstappen requires an extra eye on safety.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
19th May 2025, 15:54
I only agree with the second part of this statement. With how the start played out, Russel got the best start, and Piastri looked to have about an equal start with Verstappen. Piastri had to defend the inside line or two things would have happened. 1 – Russel would be free to overtake and dive down the inside, and would probably lead the race. You can say this isn’t a big issue because Russel isn’t really a threat, but it still would have pushed Piastri out of the first corner and left him vulnerable to Verstappen and Norris. 2. Piastri would have given the slipsteam to Verstappen down to turn one, possibly losing out to him regardless of whether he was also hampered by Russel on his inside.
So, I think hugging the inside line was the correct call. The problem is that he was too conservative on the brakes and allowed Verstappen the opportunity to sweep round the outside. If he had been more aggressive on the brakes, he might have been far enough ahead to claim the racing line and be entitled to pushing Verstappen wide, though that is also risky if Verstappen refuses to yield.
Anonymous Coward
19th May 2025, 18:40
> Piastri’s attitude was the exact opposite of what we see from his principal rival, Verstappen, every weekend. (Verstappen) invariably attacks the first corner of a race as if the victory depends on it, and he’s right to, because it often does.
(Response to bolded bits) …Which is exactly the problem with modern Formula One.
Dear FIA:
For the love of (insert preferred (non-/demi-)diety here), please triple-minus aero grip and triple-plus mechanical grip, whilst strengthening the tires only to that needed to compensate for such changes, so as to not eliminate pitstops.
Better yet… Also set new targets (as regs) to force teams to optimize aero designs for “clean” air for cars behind (e.g., goal: “kill dirty air” to extent pragmatic, in measurable way), at the expense of all other factors (including/ esp. downforce), whilst not being prescriptive, so as to encourage design innovation.
And while you’re at it… Having tire companies engineering tires that *don’t* prolifically spawn “marbles” all over the friggin’ track – effectively creating a single-car-width racing line, as if discouraging passing attempts were a *design goal*… Ugh *facepalm* – would be nice, also.
Thank You! Signed, respectfully,
– Anonymous Coward (Who’s been following F1 present and past with intense passion since ~1992, but stopped buying F1 Live subscriptions starting last year)
P.S.: From the US – apologies for all resulting spelling errors/ drain bramage/ inherent ignorance.
Ferdi
21st May 2025, 13:15
Yeah, it must have been his complacency. Because otherwise it would be a brilliant move from Max.