What Jenson Button didn’t like about Oscar Piastri performance at Silverstone

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Jenson Button was one of several former Formula 1 world champions watching on at Silverstone on Sunday.

He witnessed Lewis Hamilton win his record ninth British Grand Prix after a phenomenal performance across the weekend to finally end his wait for another victory.

Several other drivers will believe that they should have been standing on the top step of the podium after a weather-affected race.

George Russell couldn’t convert pole position into victory due to a mechanical failure and Lando Norris will be rueing the decision he made during his final – poorly executed – pit stop.

However, speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, journalist Rachel Brookes shared what McLaren star Oscar Piastri did that left Jenson Button frustrated during the race.

Piastri qualified 5^th behind his teammate, both Mercedes drivers and Max Verstappen in a damaged Red Bull.

That was far from ideal but he drove very well during the changeable conditions and joined Norris at the front of the race once the rain started falling.

However, Button was left annoyed by how Piastri navigated the tricky decision of when to pit for intermediate tyres.

He led the Grand Prix for a single lap but that ended up costing him a podium finish and potentially even victory.

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Jenson Button disagreed with Oscar Piastri strategy at Silverstone

Talking about how McLaren fared at the British Grand Prix, Brookes said: “They’re new to winning at the moment and I think that the calls that were made…I mean we were watching, we all saw the Friday long-run data, the McLaren on the medium [tyres] was the quickest car.

“Lando [Norris] on the medium in the McLaren was the quickest car.

“So, when you’re watching this and seeing people move to slicks, then thing you’re thinking is, get Lando in, it’s clearly time.

“The second thing is put mediums on, he was the quickest of anyone out there and double stack.

“And I think at that point when you were watching Oscar [Piastri] challenging Lando for position even, you’re thinking, ‘Hang on a minute’.

“Yes, he wants to get first choice on the pit stop if he’s ahead on the track, but actually, you don’t want to do another lap anyway, so just back off, let the team double stack you and come in.

“I was watching it with Jenson [Button] at the time and that’s exactly what we were thinking, back up Oscar and double stack.

“When you add everything together, it’s just a massive learning curve for a lot of them in the team.”

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Oscar Piastri missed opportunity to join list of Formula 1 winners at Silverstone

Piastri was definitely faster than Norris on the laps leading to the first round of pit stops.

However, instead of dropping back and giving McLaren the opportunity to double-stack the pair in the pits, he tried to overtake Norris to get priority in any strategy call.

The team decided to leave him out for an extra lap to avoid Piastri losing too much time waiting behind Norris, but he lost much more time staying on the track as the conditions worsened.

David Coulthard told Piastri after the race to be more demanding in situations like that in the future.

He was the only leading driver to put on the medium tyres in the final stint and he took a huge amount of time out of those in front of him.

Based on that evidence alone, Piastri might have been the best-placed driver to win the race had he entered the pits a lap earlier after mastering the conditions during a tough first stint.