McLaren to take action after ‘costly’ Oscar Piastri Belgian Grand Prix error

Overshooting his pit box at the Belgian Grand Prix, Andrea Stella says Oscar Piastri’s 4.4s stop was costly as without it he could’ve challenged Mercedes for the win.

Piastri crossed the finish line in third place at Spa on Sunday where the McLaren drivers were a mere 1.173s down on P1’s George Russell.

Could Oscar Piastri have won at Spa without his pit box error?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The Briton’s disqualification hours later for a technical infringement as his Mercedes W15 was found to be 1.5kgs underweight elevated Piastri to second,  but it was a case of what could’ve been were it not for a “costly” pit stop.

Pitting from the lead on lap 31, the Hungarian GP winner overshot his pit box and slammed into his jackman, who fortunately was not injured.

It did, however, mean a slow stop for the Aussie, one of 4.4s, and that, his team boss Stella admits, was costly in his race against the Mercedes team-mates.

The Italian says McLaren will work with the drivers, Piastri and also Lando Norris, as the latter had a similar moment at the British GP.

“Oscar said immediately in the in-lap on the radio, ‘apologies for the pit stop’,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com.

“I think he realised that that would have been a bit costly, because potentially he would have just queued behind Hamilton but he could also have been in condition to attack.

“So I think this one-and-a-half, two-second loss at the pit stop ultimately proved to be relatively costly, and even because then he would have been behind Leclerc earlier with fresher tyres, which means he could have finalised the overtaking more easily.

“We do have to work with drivers in terms of, like even in the hot moments, just don’t overcook it at the pit stop position, because it can be very costly. I think we had something similar in Silverstone as well.”

The 2024 McLaren intra-team battle in numbers

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

On the podium in every race since Norris’ Miami Grand Prix victory, McLaren’s consistency has seen the Woking team close the gap to Red Bull to 42 points with 10 races remaining.

Conceding they have not been perfect every weekend, Stella is still satisfied with the team’s consistency.

“With the little issue with Lando, Lap 1, the little issue at the pit stop, the reality is that nobody has a perfect event, it’s just impossible,” he said.

“I think we are actually quite satisfied with the level of consistency and robustness we have as a team, the only team where the drivers have scored points at every single event, mega reliability so far.

“I’ve lost count of how many points in a row, maybe 10, 10 podiums in a row. So many opportunities to do better but the big picture is of a very strong and consistent team, and this should be remarked.

“In the way the race unfolded I think it’s still important that we gain points on Red Bull, because if you had told me before the race that you’re going to gain points on Red Bull, I’m not so sure because I was expecting Verstappen to come through, and if you see last year’s race Perez finished something like 10 seconds, 15 seconds from Verstappen for a one-two.

“So we gained eight points, 43 now behind. I take the positives, and we keep working on the opportunities.”

The gap to Red Bull was revised to 42 points hours after Stella’s media briefing when Russell was disqualified, which meant McLaren scored 28 points to Red Bull’s 19.

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