Oscar Piastri secured his ninth F1 win at the Dutch GP. The Australian driver was never in doubt, leading every lap of the race and keeping his championship rivals at an arm’s length. Piastri completed the grand slam this weekend: pole position, won the race, fastest lap, and led every lap. This is the first grand slam of Piastri’s F1 career.
Piastri on winning the F1 Dutch GP handily
The Aussie was very pleased by his performance on Sunday as he stated in his post-race press conference. Piastri saw his Friday practice sessions as a struggle, yet he was still in the top three of every practice. In his tight championship race with his teammate, every session is imperative.
“The start of this weekend was looking like a difficult one and managed to get it together in qualifying. I was happy with the pace I had today. Very, very happy.”
“Obviously, a couple of safety cars spiced it up a little bit, and we weathered it all. So, I’m very proud of the whole team. It wasn’t just myself that improved to get here. It was the whole team around me and without them, none of this is possible. So, it’s a big team effort.”
Qualifying was extremely close for Piastri and Lando Norris. There was just 0.012 seconds between their final Q3 qualifying times. Ultimately, Piastri secured pole position, which he deemed a turning point in the weekend.
“I think qualifying was the key this weekend. Through the free practice sessions, it was looking like a difficult Zandvoort again, but we chipped away, tried to find time, tweak the car here and there, but just tried to really improve how I was driving because, let’s be honest, it’s pretty hard to complain about the car we’ve got.
“So just tried to chip away with that and it came good when it mattered. And through the race today, I felt like I had good pace as well and used that when I needed to. So massively proud of, firstly, myself, but also the whole team around me in turning it around from 12 months ago.”
Norris DNF, championship prospects at this point in the season
Piastri was not free and clear the whole race, however. Lando Norris and Max Verstappen put significant pressure on the championship leader throughout the race. On lap 65, a mechanical failure took Norris out of the fight for the win and out of the Dutch GP entirely.
Before the Dutch GP, Norris was just nine points off his teammate for the lead of the driver’s championship. Now Piastri has extended his lead to 34 points with nine rounds left.
When asked if the championship now looks likely, Piastri stated, “No, I don’t think so.
“There’s still a long way to go. I need to keep pushing and trying to win races still. I wouldn’t say it’s a very comfortable margin. As we saw today, it can change with one DNF very, very quickly. So this far out from the end of the year, it’s not a comfortable gap.”
The narrative of teammates-turned-championship-rivals is not new in F1. One of the most notable instances of this dynamic recently has been Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel during their years at Red Bull. Mark Webber now manages Oscar Piastri and has been helping him through a similar battle.
“He’s been very helpful through my whole career, certainly the last five years. I think once I got into Formula 1, that’s where his help has really been a lot greater and more clear.
“When I got to F1, he knew how it works and thinking of or asking questions that hadn’t even come into my head. Helping me set expectations and prepare me for how tough it’s going to be and how big of a step it is. That side of things he has been very helpful with, and that hasn’t changed in the last three years.
“Still not perfect, always thinking of new things, things I wasn’t thinking of last year or the year before. So, it’s important having him by my side.”
Piastri and Norris’s dynamic does not bear much resemblance to Webber v. Vettel at this point, however. The McLaren teammates have had their moments, but this battle has only brought them closer in the long run, Piastri stated.
“The relationship between Lando and I has not changed. If anything, we know each other better now and actually probably get on better than before.”
Piastri on his signature ‘ramp-up’ over the course of a weekend
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella commented on the media earlier at the Dutch GP, claiming that Piastri had an “Oscar-like weekend” at the Dutch GP. “Oscar-like” was defined as building pace through the practice sessions, securing pole position, and then dominating the race.
Piastri commented on this saying coined by his team boss in his post-race press conference.
“Yeah. It’s happened a few times this year where it started a bit slow and then gotten better as the weekend’s gone on. The difference from this year to last year is last year, those weekends that started slow, the middle was slow, and the end was slow. I think it’s just been good to actually find the time as the weekend’s gone on.”
The Aussie remarked that this is quite unintentional and, at times, impractical for building his confidence over the weekend.
“Is it an ideal way? Am I doing it on purpose? Not always. I’m trying to build up to things, of course, but was hoping to build up a bit quicker than I did this weekend.
“So maybe a little bit slow to get there, but I felt very happy with where I was going into qualifying, not expecting the world, just trying to do my best and see what happened. And in the end that was enough, and a similar thing today. Very happy from that side of things, and I think that part is probably the ‘Oscar-like weekend’.”
Now leading the driver’s championship by over a Grand Prix wins worth of points, Oscar Piastri is happy to lead off the second half of the season with a win. The championship battle is far from over; the Australian wants to face the last nine rounds of the season one by one.
“Starting out on top is a good way to go. If we can keep it running, then that’d be great. But there’s a long way to go yet, and we’ll keep doing it one race at a time.”
