Oscar Piastri reveals ‘only concern’ on route to maiden F1 victory

Oscar Piastri said he had no worry Lando Norris would hold onto P1 and that his only concern was a late safety car.

The Australian became the 115th different F1 race winner but it has been somewhat overshadowed by the McLaren team orders.

Oscar Piastri reacts to maiden F1 win

Piastri’s was a deserved victory having led from the first corner but it very nearly looked like his team had handed the win to Norris with a late pit stop call.

Concerned about Hamilton in P3 on fresh tyres, McLaren gave Norris the chance of an undercut on Piastri but assured the Australian his team-mate would give the spot back.

It took until the 68th lap of the 70-lap race for that swap to take place but Piastri was always confident Norris would go along with the team orders.

“I don’t think I was really concerned,” Piastri said. “The only thing I was concerned about a bit was if there was a safety car then it would have taken the situation out of our hands, it would have taken the control out of our hands.

“So that was really the only thing I was a bit concerned about. But we’d spoken about it at the timing of the stop that that we would sort it back out.

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“I had full trust in everyone in the team, including Lando that we would make that happen.”

There was one thing missing from Piastri’s celebration though and that was the shoey but the McLaren driver insisted that was a Daniel Ricciardo tradition not his own.

“The shoey is Danny Ric’s thing,” he said with a smile. “I mean I’m going to get roped into it because I’m an Aussie but I don’t know, I’ll try and think of something new but I think that’s that’s gone and done.

“I know we did one at Silverstone but I think we were a bit upset after the race there so we needed some cheering up. Maybe we’ll do it on the plane on the way back home, can probably pay the cleaning fee now.

“But no, I’ll leave that to Danny Ric and that could be his legacy. I’ll create my own.”

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