Stella uncovers Piastri's 'remarkable' F1 trait

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has highlighted the “very remarkable” trait that Oscar Piastri has displayed this year.

Piastri has enjoyed a successful rookie campaign with the Woking-based outfit after sitting on the sidelines last season as Alpine reserve driver.

At the Japanese Grand Prix, Piastri claimed his first career podium by crossing the line in third place behind team-mate Lando Norris, before securing the victory in the Qatar Grand Prix Sprint.

A common theme throughout Piastri's season is his large gap to Norris at the start of the weekend before he decreases the gap through qualifying.

Stella confirmed that the Australian adopts an approach of slowly building through the weekend to ensure he is able to gain experience without making mistakes.

“I’ve seen the qualities that he deployed [in Japan], they are very similar all across the season,” he told media including RacingNews365.com.

“He approaches in a very controlled way. He is fast, but he tries to make sure that he doesn't go too far in exploiting the car, just learns run by run.

“We see that this progression is always quite consistent, up to the point where it was a P2 in Qualifying, which is quite remarkable considering that Suzuka is an unforgiving track, you know, it’s an old school track, it’s narrow.

“There’s a couple of places where you turn at more than 250km/h and you sort of hope that the car will do what you want. And he was quick in these places actually.

“So it's very remarkable what he's been able to achieve so far, definitely in terms of outright speed.”

Race pace a weakness

One weakness that has been seen at times, however, is Piastri's gap to Norris in the race.

Stella has asserted that Piastri is leaving no stone unturned as he seeks to improve his pace over a Grand Prix distance.

“We saw that in the race, that in terms of achieving the consistency required to stay there, there's some more work to do,” conceded Stella.

“He has said that himself, straight out of the car, that he has actually been focused more on this element than on the fact that he was on the podium. But we appreciate that.

“It just shows the commitment and the fact that he is ambitious.”