Toto Wolff saw something in Oscar Piastri’s McLaren data that could silence Andrea Stella

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Oscar Piastri will find it difficult to take any positives from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. He arrived at the event a point behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris and left 24 adrift.

Piastri crashed out of the Sprint race on Saturday, his third race-ending shunt in six starts. He was then on course to end his podium drought in the Grand Prix before receiving a 10-second penalty.

Piastri’s penalty has split opinion, with some suggesting that his collision with Kimi Antonelli was a racing incident. Antonelli took Charles Leclerc out of the race immediately after tangling with the McLaren.

The enforced delay in the pit lane left Piastri fighting for fourth with Mercedes driver George Russell, and he lost out by less than seven-tenths of a second.

Oscar Piastri was rapid at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix

Speaking to Sky Germany after the race, Toto Wolff pointed to Piastri’s formidable pace at the end of the Grand Prix. He was lapping more than half a second faster than both Mercedes drivers.

This showed that Piastri had kept the tyres in a ‘perfect’ window. He pitted on lap 51, just three laps after Russell and four after Antonelli, so it wasn’t just about freshness.

“The window is so small,” said Wolff. “Piastri was five or six tenths faster than both of ours at the end. That wasn’t the case before.

“You have to hit the window perfectly, and then you have performance. If you don’t, you don’t have it.”

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast on Monday, Brazilian journalist Felipe Giaffone said Piastri ‘has to fine-tune this tyre management’. Host Tom Clarkson agreed that this had been his biggest weakness in his first two full seasons.

Despite his recent slump, Piastri still leads the overall qualifying head-to-head 14-12. However, he now trails Norris 12-6 in full-length races, where preserving the Pirelli rubber is most important.

Andrea Stella said Lando Norris was better at extending stints than Oscar Piastri

Martin Brundle feels Piastri has been ‘so unlucky’ of late. Brundle also says that Piastri has encountered ‘setup problems’ and a ‘series of tracks that don’t suit him well’.

Indeed, Andrea Stella said there were ‘technical’ problems with Piastri’s driving in the USA and Mexico. In terms of outright pace, he appeared much closer to the norm last weekend, even if the results alone don’t show it.

Norris is peaking at the right time, with his last two performances arguably the best of his career.

Stella says Norris is the best F1 driver on used tyres, so McLaren clearly feel Piastri has room for improvement in this area. But if he can replicate what he did in Brazil consistently, then he could take a major step towards becoming a complete package.