Piastri dismisses suggestions that McLaren should change its approach of treating its drivers equally
Ahead of the title-deciding weekend in Abu Dhabi, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri dismissed suggestions that the Woking-based outfit should change its approach of treating its drivers equally.
Starting from pole position, Oscar Piastri made a great start, leading on the first lap. He looked on course to take a victory after his win in the Sprint, but things took a negative turn when the safety car was deployed.
Piastri did everything he could to create a gap, building up a sizeable margin from Verstappen after the safety car left the track. However, the Dutchman managed to raise his pace in the second half of the 57-lap encounter which left Piastri without any chance of converting his dominant performance into a race victory.
As for his team-mate Lando Norris, he lost second place at the start. Although he looked quick, he was unable to replicate Piastri’s pace which meant that he could not even build enough of a gap to stay ahead of Carlos Sainz and Andrea Kimi Antonelli after his second stop.
The Briton had looked set to finish fifth, but Antonelli made a mistake on the penultimate lap which allowed Norris to slip through to limit the damage in the championship fight.
Asked whether McLaren intends to apply the same approach of treating him and Lando Norris fairly and giving them equal opportunity, Piastri said that the Woking-based outfit should not change anything for the future.
"I don’t think there’s really been too many scenarios where it’s been detrimental to us, really. Obviously, there was what happened in Monza, but that’s really the only one where maybe you can.
"Well, a lot of people did argue about it! But I think the last few races have been nothing to do with how we’ve approached things as a team going wrong. On my side, it’s been some things with the car and myself just not working. Clearly, Lando has been very quick the last few weeks.
Reflecting on last Sunday's strategy blunder, Piastri said: "This weekend, I think we got it wrong just because that’s what we thought was the right thing to do – not because we were concerned about what was fair or what was not. So I don’t think we need to change that approach. I think it yields a lot of positives.
"Yes, there are some tough moments, but there are also a lot of tough moments if you go in a different direction to that. So, yeah, I don’t think we need to change anything," concluded the Australian.
