McLaren star Oscar Piastri wishes one F1 rule ‘didn’t exist’ after Las Vegas GP

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McLaren gem Oscar Piastri admits he spent the final laps of the Las Vegas GP wishing the Formula 1 rule forcing the drivers to use two Pirelli tyre compounds ‘didn’t exist’.

The 22-year-old came home P10 around Sin City after McLaren had to call Piastri in for a late pit stop. He boxed on the 43rd tour of the 50-lap race in Nevada to meet the rule mandating the use of two different tyre compounds. It meant Piastri had to give up a possible P4 finish.

Formula 1 mandates that all drivers must use at least two different tyre compounds during a dry Grand Prix. It introduced the rule to have a strategic aspect in the races as F1 cars do not need to stop for refuelling. The teams can pick any two from the three compounds available.

Piastri ran P4 at the Las Vegas GP before a late pit stop

McLaren started Piastri on the hard compound Pirelli tyres given their poor qualifying result at the Las Vegas GP. The Australian started the race from P18 on the grid after Lance Stroll’s grid penalty. He had qualified in P19 with teammate Lando Norris creeping from P16 to P15.

Yet Piastri found himself running in P13 after the early VSC having avoided the chaos of the first corner. He then overcame the Las Vegas Strip Circuit’s lack of grip to make up plenty of places. Piastri even impressed Martin Brundle with a ‘very brave’ overtake on Yuki Tsunoda.

But Piastri peeled into the pits on Lap 16 after getting a puncture from a tyre-on-tyre touch with Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren driver had sought to hang on around the outside of the Mercedes pilot. But both would sustain damage with Hamilton stopping after the next lap.

McLaren elected to send Piastri back out on a second set of the hard compound Pirelli tyres after the contact. But other drivers stopping around the second safety car of the race only 10 laps later put Piastri at a disadvantage, despite their stops promoting him into fourth place.

McLaren had to stop Piastri to avoid getting a penalty

Piastri had the pace with his older tyres to hang onto P4 through to his eventual pit stop on Lap 43. But a late stop to avoid receiving a penalty dropped the rookie sensation out of the top 10. Yet the Australian used his fresh medium rubber to climb back up to P10 by the flag.

He even set the fastest lap of the Las Vegas GP on the Melbourne native’s 47th tour to claim one extra point. But Piastri was left rueing F1’s rule that requires the use of two different tyre compounds after it denied the McLaren driver a brilliant surprise result at the Las Vegas GP.

The 2021 Formula 2 champion also noted how the second safety car period had helped the drivers who were yet to stop. Piastri cites Alpine driver Esteban Ocon as a prime example of stopping around the safety car. The 27-year-old took his sole stop on Lap 20 en route to P4.

Piastri said, via quotes by F1i.com: “The timing of the safety car was pretty much perfect for the guys that stayed out on mediums at the start. Look at Ocon, it worked perfectly for him.

“I was really wishing the rule of using two compounds didn’t exist because I would have just gone to the end on the hards. I think we had the pace to hang on to people, so that was a shame. The pace of the car was a really good surprise.

“[Qualifying] obviously wasn’t particularly representative of our pace. But today was probably better than we expected. So, we need to understand what the difference was.”