McLaren team boss Andrea Stella says Oscar Piastri will “reset very quickly” after his Formula 1 Brazil sprint crash cost him eight championship points to winning team-mate Lando Norris.
On lap 6 of Saturday morning’s damp 24-lap contest, Piastri lost control of his McLaren on the wet kerbs on the inside of Turn 3. The Australian spun out and tagged the barriers to end his race, losing third position and with it six crucial points in the championship. Norris, meanwhile, won the sprint and increased his championship lead from one to nine points.
Behind Piastri, Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto suffered nearly identical spins, with Colapinto’s heavy smash bringing out the red flag for barrier repairs.
With qualifying due up shortly, McLaren chief Stella backed Piastri to rebound quickly and said the most important element was the Australian appeared on the pace again this weekend after two off-kilter grands prix in Austin and Mexico.
“It was a great result for Lando, and a missed opportunity with Oscar,” Stella told F1 TV. “Conditions are tricky, you put the wheel on a kerb and that’s completely unforgiving, there’s no way to control the car.
“It happened to three drivers in the same lap, in the same point. So, it’s just unfortunate, but the most reassuring input thus far, is that Oscar has been fast. So we now look forward, we want to capitalise this speed in qualifying and then in the race tomorrow.”
The Italian added: “He will reset very quickly. I’m sure as soon as he’s back with the engineers, he’s thinking about what we can do for qualifying, what did we learn from the fuel-ups in the sprint. Racers, they reset, they go again. And you don’t have to carry any disappointment, because otherwise you’re just depowering yourself.
“We know that Oscar is very capable, very quick, so we repair the car and we go again.”
Commenting sparsely on his accident to Sky, Piastri offered: “Just trying to put this behind, I guess. We’ll see what weather we have for this afternoon.
“Obviously, there’s a lot more points on offer tomorrow, so the better job I can do this afternoon of trying to give myself a good starting spot, the better we’ll be.”
