Oscar Piastri has conceded missing out on victory at Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix “hurts a lot” after Ferrari’s cunning strategy led Charles Leclerc to the top.
The McLaren driver squeezed past team-mate Lando Norris at turn four on the opening lap and set about building a lead to seal his second win in F1.
Having established an advantage in the middle stint of the 53-lap event, Piastri was asked by the team if he felt he could eke his hard tyres out until the end of the race, having pitted on lap 16, one lap after Leclerc.
The Australian claimed he could not and instead boxed for fresh mediums, whereas Ferrari took the risk to leave both Leclerc and Carlos Sainz out on aging hards.
Piastri and Norris both passed the Spaniard, and despite rapidly eating into Leclerc’s lead, the Monegasque had enough of a buffer to clinch his second win of the season,
“It hurts. I’m not going to lie, it hurts a lot,” said Piastri.
“We did a lot of things right. There were a lot of question marks on the strategy going into the race. From the position we were in with the tyres looking like they did, doing a one-stop seemed like a very risky call.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, 2nd position, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, 3rd position, into Parc Ferme at the end of the race
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“In the end, [stopping once] was right. Very, very happy with the pace, with the race that I managed to achieve… just, when you finished second it hurts.”
Asked if he thought he could have ultimately made the one-stop race work, Piastri replied: “In hindsight, yes, but everyone’s a legend after the race and, unfortunately, we got it a bit wrong, myself being a big part of that.
“We had everything to lose from being in the lead of the race. Charles could try something a bit different. He was going to finish third either way. He picked the right gamble.
“My front left was pretty heavily grained. We didn’t expect it to clear back up again, which it did. So yeah, painful.”
Norris had started on pole and was looking to take a sizeable chunk out of Max Verstappen’s lead at the top of the drivers’ championship.
He had to settle for the final step on the podium, however, and echoed the sentiments of Piastri when it came to McLaren’s shortcomings in Monza.
“I mean, we considered it [one-stopping] the whole race, but not possible with the amount of graining that I had,” explained Norris.
“It’s a tough one. We knew it would be tight, but just with our car and some of the limitations we have, it wasn’t possible. We knew it, we knew that could be a possibility.
“We’re disappointed, of course, but Ferrari did a better job, they had a better car and that’s hats off to them.”
