McLaren faced 'hardest call in motorsport' in British GP dilemma - Piastri

McLaren faced "the hardest call in motor racing" with its dilemma over to double-stack or not during the British Grand Prix, believes Oscar Piastri. 

The race-defining moment at Silverstone came on Lap 27 when the field was forced to move onto the intermediate tyres as rain fell, with McLaren running one-two at the time with Lando Norris just half-a-second ahead of Piastri. 

Given the closeness of the two, McLaren elected not to double-stack in the pit-lane, whereas Mercedes did so with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell who were running third and fourth. 

Piastri was forced to go around again and pit at the end of Lap 28, by which time Norris had almost caught the Australian back up. 

Piastri recovered to fourth at the flag, having been the fastest car on track on the fresh mediums he fitted at the swap back to dry tyres, but conceded the double-stack decision was "painful."

"I would say it was a joint, [decision], to be honest, that decision is probably the hardest call you're ever going to have in motor racing," Piastri told media including RacingNews365. 

"You've got two cars, separated by half a second with rain coming down. I don't think it gets any harder than that, so I think clearly, some things we need to review.

"I think double stacking would have been the better call, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. So I think we just need to see if we had any information that told us that was going to be a better choice, but it is painful.

"As soon as I went past pit entry, [I knew it was the wrong call]. The last couple of corners were very, very tough, and I could see on my dash that Lando was like five seconds behind me when I pitted. 

"So I knew I was in a lot of trouble, I knew it was the wrong call.

"If I got in front, then it would be my priority to go into the pits, so that's why I say it's one of the hardest decisions because I'm trying to get the lead to give myself priority. The team don't know which car is going to come in first into the pits."

Piastri backs McLaren calls

Piastri hailed McLaren's decision-making other than the double-stack dilemma, believing they "nailed" the calls made.

"We just need to review if we put enough weight on that decision," he added. 

"Obviously, when two cars are so close like that, you lose a lot of time from doing a double stack. The conditions were getting trickier, but it was very, very hard to judge. 

"It was only really half of the track that was really difficult until the lap that I stayed out, and then the whole track became difficult. 

"But in hindsight, double stacking would have given us a very good chance of winning.

"Every other decision we absolutely nailed in that race. I think me and Lando put ourselves in a great position getting to the lead. 

"I think the decision on my side to put mediums on was the right call, because we were clearly the quickest at the end, so it is just a shame that we weren't in a better position in the middle of the race."