Oscar Piastri’s engineer ‘didn’t dare’ give him one vital piece of information during Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Follow us on Google Discover

Oscar Piastri faced a tense last few laps of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix when he had to hold off Charles Leclerc for the victory.

The McLaren driver pulled off an impressive pass on Charles Leclerc, who led the first 20 laps from pole position, to take the lead shortly after both had made their sole pit stops for fresh tyres.

Oscar Piastri had taken life out of his hard tyres early on in the second stint in a bid to catch up to Leclerc, having lost time and nearly faced an undercut from Sergio Perez.

A bit of team work from Lando Norris enabled Piastri to stay ahead and pull off the race-winning move on Leclerc, although it was a tense final few laps as both drivers reached the end of the performance from their tyres.

His engineer, Tom Stallard, described what it was like for Piastri in the final laps and revealed that he did not tell him a key piece of information when speaking on Sky Sports.

Tom Stallard did not tell Oscar Piastri how many laps were remaining in tense last laps of Azerbaijan GP

Piastri consistently stayed over half a second ahead of Leclerc when they reached the long DRS zone on the start/finish straight, which was lengthened by 100m, at the Baku street circuit.

This enabled him to keep the lead as they entered the first corner, with Leclerc having to use the unfavoured outside line. As he kept the pace up, Leclerc’s tyres reached the peak of their performance and with three laps until the end he dropped out of Piastri’s DRS window.

Stallard reveals that Piastri’s calm nature in these tense scenarios is what makes him an easy driver to work with at McLaren.

“Every lap was tense, inside DRS, using the overtake button, hanging in there. I didn’t dare tell him how many laps were remaining because I didn’t want to stress him out,” said Stallard.

“He is genuinely incredibly calm and it makes it very easy working with him, because it makes people around him stay calm and that makes it easy to make a decision and provide good support. So it’s a real strength.”

McLaren told they will have Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri ‘problem’

With Piastri now becoming the highest points scorer in the last seven Grands Prix, he is currently outperforming Norris.

McLaren has backed Norris to win the Drivers’ Championship as he is the closest on points to Max Verstappen, but Piastri is still mathematically within a chance.

Former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley expects it will be difficult for Norris and Piastri to remain friends, if the latter emerges as a credible threat to a title challenge in 2025.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

Helmut Marko has stated that Red Bull is no longer focusing on the Constructors’ title, with them now having to figure out how to improve Max Verstappen’s chances of defending his Drivers’ crown.

Piastri was given plaudits by Karun Chandhok for his ‘tremendous confidence’ when overtaking Leclerc for the lead of the Azerbaijan GP.