Oscar Piastri endured a weekend of frustration in Baku after a crash on the first lap ended his race at the F1 Azerbaijan GP, and left him reflecting on avoidable mistakes. He judged that he pushed too hard, misjudged starts, and made “costly errors” in what should’ve been a chance to extend his championship lead.
Crash, start issues and early exit
Piastri began his F1 Azerbaijan GP weekend with optimism, but things unravelled early. He jumped the start and then went into antistall.
“Just a misjudgement on the lights. I guess trying to anticipate it too much.”
Then at turn 5 he locked up and went into the wall. It ended his race.
“Ah, no, just locked up and went off.”
He accepted responsibility: “Simple error and then went to anti-stall and went downhill from there.”
Pace was there, but execution let him down
Despite the crash, Piastri feels the car held promise after a difficult Friday where he struggled for a good balance.
“You know, obviously, you’re never going to feel amazing after a weekend like this. But, you know, ultimately, I felt like the pace has still been good this weekend.”
He acknowledged rare mistakes: “I think it’s rare that I have so many executional errors.
“I would be much more concerned if these errors were because I was trying to make up time or do things like that. So, I think they should be, obviously, being costly errors, but things that could be very, very easily rectified,” the Australian continued.
The McLaren driver was questioned if the dirty air played a factor.
“I mean, I think just ultimately misjudging the group level. And probably a lot of that’s from dirty air. But, you know, I know better than that to expect the lack of grip.”
Piastri described that he didn’t sense anything unusually different this weekend as two crashes at the same event is extremely rare for the championship leader.
“There’s not been anything that different. And I think for me, that’s how you want to look at that, I guess.
“This weekend’s felt like any other weekend. Just unfortunately, there’s been far too many mistakes from start to finish. You know, every single session has been messy.”
After the F1 Azerbaijan GP, the championship standings tighten considerably. Oscar Piastri leads with 324 points, while Lando Norris trails him by 25 points at 299. Max Verstappen jumps up to 255 points, now 69 behind Piastri, keeping his title hopes alive. With seven rounds remaining, every race will count in this title fight.
