McLaren Team Principal Defends Piastri After Dutch GP Crash, Cites Schumacher as Parallel
Zandvoort, Netherlands – McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has defended Oscar Piastri following the Australian driver’s crash during the Dutch Grand Prix, asserting that even Formula One legend Michael Schumacher experienced similar setbacks. Piastri’s race ended abruptly when he hit the barriers front-first while entering turn five, unable to turn in quickly enough for the 90-degree left-hander.
Stella, who served as Schumacher’s performance engineer at Ferrari from 2002 to 2006 – a period during which Schumacher secured three of his seven World Championships – placed Piastri in a comparable class. “I have worked with multi-champion drivers and in a season, every season, even the most dominant, even one of the best drivers in the history of Formula One, like Michael schumacher, I have seen events like this,” Stella stated.He emphasized that such instances are valuable learning opportunities,especially when grip is misjudged and heavily penalized.
The incident was notable given Piastri’s generally composed performance this season, with only two prior notable errors: a spin in wet conditions at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne and a penalty at Silverstone for driving erratically behind the safety car.The Dutch GP crash ended a 34-race points-scoring streak for Piastri, who is in his third Formula One season. Piastri himself acknowledged a weekend of “silly mistakes” and “lapses in judgment.”
However,Stella reassured that neither Piastri nor the team were overly concerned,characterizing it as a “one-off weekend” and a “loss to review,” a common occurrence even among champions.
The situation was somewhat mitigated by a difficult qualifying session for Piastri’s title rival, Lando Norris, who started and finished seventh. Norris closed the championship gap by only six points, leaving him 25 points behind Piastri with seven races remaining.
Stella, who has also worked with world champions Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso, believes Piastri possesses the ability to learn from mistakes and move forward, a trait shared by the sport’s greatest drivers. ”I’ve had a chat with Oscar and his mind is already fully functional, processing, he’s already into thinking: ‘That’s what I’ve learned. I look forward to the next one,'” Stella said. “One of the strongest features of Oscar is how rapidly he learns, how rapidly he improves and how he can come back stronger.That’s why he’s been so prosperous in every category.” He predicts a strong return from Piastri in the remaining races of the closely contested championship.
