Oscar Piastri’s race engineer says he’s made ‘massive strides’ in one area this season after Baku win

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There are question marks over whether Oscar Piastri is a Formula 1 title challenger this season or not, but it’s safe to say his time is coming.

After less than 40 Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri is already a multiple Grand Prix winner and his performance at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is a glimpse of his true potential.

Piastri has already shown he’s not going to take any prisoners on track in his rapid McLaren.

His move on teammate Lando Norris to take the lead in Monza was exceptional, but he topped that with his overtake on Charles Leclerc to win in Baku.

Not only is Piastri aggressive at just the right moments, but he never pushes it too far and any contact he’s had during his F1 career has been minimal.

It’s yet to be seen what will happen when Piastri goes wheel-to-wheel with Max Verstappen but that battle is on the horizon if Red Bull can get their act together.

Speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast, Piastri’s race engineer Tom Stallard was analysing the Australian’s performance in Baku.

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Nico Rosberg was critical of Piastri’s driving style earlier in the season but those errors appear to have been ironed out.

Mark Webber gloated after Baku when Piastri’s tyre management was brought up and Stallard has admitted that the 23-year-old has gone to great lengths to try and manage this issue.

Considering Leclerc’s tyres went off before Piastri’s in Baku, albeit with the Australian running in clean air, it’s safe to say he’s definitely improving in that area.

Oscar Piastri has made ‘massive strides’ in his tyre management says McLaren race engineer

Asked if there are still areas that Piastri can improve, Stallard said: “Certainly, we weren’t on pole and we didn’t get the fastest lap!

“We’ve been working really hard with Oscar this year on race tyre management and we’ve made massive strides with that.

“Last year, there were various races where really the tyres got out from underneath him and we ended up not really representing his ability because we couldn’t manage the tyres effectively.

“This year, we had one or two of those earlier in the year, maybe China and Japan weren’t his greatest and since then really, he’s now in a good place with the tyre management.

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“It’s no longer a weakness let’s say, I still think there’s plenty to learn, he’s improving all the time with his understanding of the tyres, knowing when to push, where to use the tyre you’ve got, where to save it and try and keep it cool.

“One of the tricky things that people maybe don’t realise is that F1 tyres are Pirelli tyres, F2 tyres are Pirelli tyres, but they behave very differently.

“So, it’s not like you come out of F2 as an F2 champion and you already understand the F1 tyre; they’re quite different.”

Mark Webber tells McLaren what they could have done better in Baku for Oscar Piastri

Much was made of McLaren’s papaya rules going into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend but few would have expected Norris to be the one helping Piastri in the race.

His unfortunate Q1 exit saw him have to go long on his first stint and try to undercut as much of the field as possible.

It put him in the perfect position to hold up Sergio Perez just enough to allow Piastri to get out ahead of him from his pit stop.

Webber believes McLaren could have managed Piastri’s pit stop better but it worked out in the end.

McLaren haven’t always nailed their strategies this season but they know that they need to be perfect over the next seven race weekends if they’re going to win both championships.

While it might be Norris who eventually triumphs if that is the case, Piastri will already be thinking about his potential title challenge next year.