Stella: Piastri pitstop mishap cost chance of Spa victory
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella believes that Oscar Piastri’s overshoot of his pit box on his final stop in the Belgian Grand Prix likely cost the Aussie a shot at winning the race.
Piastri's race at Spa-Francorchamps was a tale of two halves. The McLaren charger, fresh off his maiden victory in Hungary, looked a strong contender for a second consecutive win as he kept pace with the race leaders at Spa-Francorchamps.
However, his messy 4.4s pitstop left the 23-year-old with more ground to cover hunt down and reel Mercedes rivals George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the event.
Piastri crossed the checkered flag just 0.647s behind Russell, a gap that puts into context his pitstop error according to Stella.
"Like Oscar said immediately in the in-lap on the radio, 'apologies for the pitstop', because I think he realises that that could have been a bit costly," said Stella.
"Potentially, he would have just queued behind Hamilton, but he could have also been in condition to attack. So I think this 1.5-2s loss at the pitstop ultimately proved to be relatively costly.
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"Even because then you would have been behind Leclerc earlier with fresher tyres, which means you could have finalised the overtaking more easily. So a bit of a cascade.
"We do have to work with drivers in terms of like...even in the hot moments, just don't overcook it at the pitstop position because it can be very costly. I think he had something similar in Silverstone as well."
Commenting on the battle at the head of the race between the two Mercedes drivers, Stella said that he expected Hamilton to overhaul Russell, which would have made the latter vulnerable to Piastri’s attacks.
“We were expecting that Lewis could have overtaken George and then George would have been an easier target,” he explained.
“But he did such a good job of keeping the lead, despite the old tyres so it’s just a good job by George Russell.
“We are very happy with our drivers today. Oscar really gave everything, a very attacking race from Oscar himself. And Lando unfortunately the positions lost at the start, they proved to be more costly than we thought after a few laps.”
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