McLaren F1 boss Andrea Stella thinks 22-year-old driver has a ‘natural gift’

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella thinks Oscar Piastri has a ‘natural gift’ to stay in the right mental state after having a ‘remarkable’ rookie season as a Formula 1 driver.

The 20-year-old became the first rookie since Lewis Hamilton with McLaren in 2007 to finish more than one Grand Prix on the podium. Piastri also accrued more points this year with 97 than any rookie has achieved since 2015. He even won the Sprint at the Qatar GP from pole.

McLaren starting this season on the back foot gave Piastri time to settle into Formula 1 after a year on the sidelines. The Woking outfit coaxed the Australian away from Alpine to replace Daniel Ricciardo having acted as the Enstone team’s reserve driver after winning the F2 title.

Oscar Piastri enjoyed a brilliant rise as a Formula 1 driver for McLaren

Piastri was a back-to-back-to-back champion in the junior series after winning the Formula Renault Eurocup title, the Formula 3 title and the Formula 2 title in successive seasons from 2019 to 2021. But Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon blocked Piastri’s route into Formula 1.

McLaren took advantage of his situation at Alpine to steal Piastri as Ricciardo’s successor for the 2023 season. And once Team Papaya gave the Melbourne native their upgrades for their home British GP, Stella and CEO Zak Brown saw Piastri repay the faith they put in his talents.

Piastri enjoyed steady results during the first nine rounds of the year whilst McLaren tried to overcome the MCL60’s deficiencies. But the Woking team’s upgrades saw him get P3 on the grid at the British GP. Piastri would also have finished on the podium but for a late safety car.

McLaren continued to witness the rise of Piastri as a Formula 1 driver ahead of the summer break, too. He qualified P4 at the Hungarian GP, plus P2 before finishing in second place for the Sprint at the Belgian GP. His maiden Grand Prix podium later arrived at the Japanese GP.

Andrea Stella opens up on the secrets to Oscar Piastri’s rookie season

Teammate Lando Norris ultimately pipped Piastri for P2 at the Japanese GP. But he could not deny the Australian his first P2 at the Qatar GP, where the Alpine academy product also won the Sprint. Now, McLaren boss Stella has detailed why he feels Piastri faired so well in 2023.

“I think the quality which, if you want, maybe one of the key enablers [of] why he can grow so rapidly is just the man beyond the driver,” Stella told GP Blog. “He’s so calm. He’s so good at keeping himself in a status in which he can use the best of his talent.

“I don’t have that quality, I have to think very actively about ‘What am I thinking? What are my emotions?’ I have to think about my psychology to actively keep myself in the most productive state. For Oscar, this seems to come quite naturally. That’s the main enabler.

“I think he, potentially, has a natural gift. Or, maybe he worked throughout his young career through that. I don’t know. But, certainly, he’s remarkable. And even when I’ve seen great drivers currently or in the past, all of them sort of sometimes underperformed because they don’t stay in the status in which they give their best. I think, for Oscar, this is quite natural.”