Andrea Stella says Oscar Piastri proved McLaren were right all along with Qatar Sprint win

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Oscar Piastri cruised to victory in the F1 Sprint at the Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday. It ends a winless run stretching back to the Dutch GP at the end of August.

George Russell, who shared the front row with Piastri, had identified the start as his only realistic chance given the difficulty of overtaking in Qatar. But the Australian comfortably held on to the lead.

Piastri’s ultimate winning margin was almost five seconds, an impressive gap at the end of a 19-lap race. Teammate and championship rival Lando Norris finished third.

Coming into this weekend, Piastri was without a top-three finish in eight starts, but he maintained his 100% record in Qatar Sprints.

McLaren ‘always said’ Oscar Piastri would be better at high-grip circuits

Piastri’s drop-off left many in F1 confused given that he was almost robotically consistent for the first two-thirds of the season.

However, Andrea Stella said before the Sao Paulo GP that McLaren had identified ‘technical’ issues with Piastri’s driving on low-grip circuits like Baku (where he crashed twice), Mexico and Las Vegas.

Stella repeated on Thursday that recent tracks hadn’t suited Piastri’s driving style. Given his prior success in Lusail, there was optimism that he would regain form this weekend.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the session, the team principal suggested that McLaren’s theories had been proven right.

“Oscar, once we are back at a circuit where the grip is high, we can see how quick he is,” he said. “We always said that. We see the behaviour of the tyre with the graining – that’s kind of Oscar’s regime.

“He was naturally and immediately very comfortable.”

What Oscar Piastri’s engineer says about the atmosphere at McLaren in Qatar

Piastri narrowed the gap to Norris to 22 points on Saturday, but that doesn’t drastically change the championship picture. In fact, Norris now knows he can win the title if he takes victory on Sunday.

If Piastri is outscored by more than three points, he will be officially out of contention. A repeat of the Sprint result, however, would see him close to within a far more inviting 12 points.

Despite what’s at stake, Piastri’s engineer, Tom Stallard, says the two sides of the McLaren garage have maintained a policy of total cooperation.

“I was talking to Tom Stallard before we came on air,” said Sky’s Simon Lazenby. “He said it’s still so friendly between both sides. Yes, they’re competitive between either side of the garage, but they’re working together as a team.”