Oscar Piastri has stated he hopes to put F1 São Paulo GP sprint race behind him and is looking towards qualifying after a collision with the barriers saw him walk away with no points on Saturday.
Piastri recorded his third DNF of the season during the F1 São Paulo GP sprint race, where he came into contact with a wet kerb and spun his McLaren into the barriers at turn three. As a result, he will go into Sunday’s race trailing behind teammate and sprint winner Lando Norris by nine points.
“I’m just trying to put this behind,” he said, speaking after the sprint race. “We’ll see what weather we have for this afternoon. Obviously, there’s a lot more points on offer tomorrow.”
“The better job I can do this afternoon of trying to give myself a good starting spot, the better it’ll be.”
Stella: ‘Mixed feelings’ after Lando Norris win and Oscar Piastri crash
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella admitted that it was a bittersweet session for the team, with Norris having secured the sprint race win. Piastri started third on the grid and was in a position to score the team some strong points, but rain earlier in the day meant that some areas of the track weren’t fully dry and complicated things for all drivers.
The Australian driver wasn’t the only victim of the wet conditions; Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto also spun off track at the same corner shortly after the incident with Piastri.
“Mixed feelings because we cash in a victory with Lando,” said Stella. “We were in a strong position with Oscar, but unfortunately, like I said before, mixed conditions, tricky conditions.
“You put a wheel too far and we saw three cars in a single lap in the same point crashed on the barriers.
“So, it’s just an episode. Oscar has been fast this weekend, so we look now forward to reorganising, regrouping, repair the car. The big points are tomorrow and capitalise on the speed in qualifying and then tomorrow with Oscar.”
McLaren looking towards F1 São Paulo GP qualifying
Stella was unperturbed by the incident, dismissing it as an “episode” that the team would hope to remedy by the time qualifying comes around – and he was confident Piastri would be eager to do the same.
“He’s a very functional mind and that’s certainly the conversation we are going to have,” said the McLaren team principal.
“The most important point is that the speed is there. If there’s an episode when you put a wheel on a kerb and you lose it, it’s just an episode. We look forward to the qualifying. We look forward to the race.”
Asked whether Piastri might have been worse off had Max Verstappen scored more points in the sprint race, Stella asserted the importance of the upcoming qualifying session. Verstappen scored five points after he finished in fourth place, and now sits 30 points behind Piastri in the championship standings.
“Obviously the points are the points. That’s a fact. It’s a number,” said Stella.
“It’s unfortunate that that’s the case, but this is what it is. You can only do your best and we have an opportunity to do our best right in a few hours. So, that’s our focus.”
