Andrea Stella says McLaren discovered Oscar Piastri ‘technical’ issues before Brazilian Grand Prix

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Oscar Piastri qualified third for the Brazilian Grand Prix Sprint on Friday. While he once again lost out to McLaren teammate Lando Norris, he looked more comfortable in the car.

Surprise package Kimi Antonelli split the two Mercedes cars in Sprint qualifying. Norris took pole with a 1:09.243, while Piastri improved on his second lap to go just over two-tenths slower.

Piastri had only been four-hundredths slower than Norris in SQ2, and two-hundredths in FP1. He hasn’t beaten Norris in a competitive session since Singapore qualifying, but appears to be close when he strings the lap together here.

This is also just the third time in the last 11 sessions that Piastri has been in the top three amid a perplexing drop-off from the erstwhile championship leader.

McLaren attribute Oscar Piastri drop-off to ‘technical’ factors

Speaking to Sky Sports‘ Karun Chandhok as he left the McLaren pit wall, team principal Andrea Stella confidently said Piastri was ‘back to form’ at Interlagos.

He still has more time to find ahead of Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying, and did make a mistake in SQ3. But the team are satisfied that they have identified the ‘technical reasons’ behind his out-of-character performances in the USA and Mexico.

Piastri’s ‘natural style’ wasn’t optimising the McLaren, so it may be that he’s had to make adjustments for this weekend, potentially moving closer to Norris’ approach.

“In Austin and in Mexico, there were some technical reasons why Oscar adopting his natural style was not producing the lap time,” said Stella. “We reviewed that already in Mexico after qualifying.

“Already in the race, Oscar was quite fast. He couldn’t prove it because of the traffic, and I think here in Brazil, he’s back to his form.

“I’m sure he wants to polish one tenth more. It’s a shame that he had a little mistake on his first attempt at turn one.”

Sebastian Vettel chooses title favourite between Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen

Juan Pablo Montoya says McLaren’s car is now more suited to Norris, but says this wasn’t a conscious development direction. He feels that the British driver’s ‘looser’ style is proving to be faster, even if it requires more corrections.

In a further boost to McLaren, Max Verstappen is only sixth on the Sprint grid, though Red Bull have shown multiple times this season that they can turn weekends around.

Sebastian Vettel says Norris is now the title favourite, but historically, the chaotic Brazilian GP has been a swing moment in championship battles.