McLaren boss Andrea Stella has welcomed Oscar Piastri being "demanding" in order to push the team forwards. Piastri will make his F1 debut with the Woking-based squad in 2023 and, despite being new to the grid, the Australian has so far impressed the outfit with his ability to question why they have done certain things. "[When we have been] reviewing what happened in the past with the drivers, for instance, we give them some audio files to listen to of previous races," Stella told media, including RacingNews365.com , at the launch of McLaren's 2023 car. "The way he gets to the bottom of matters and even maybe questions like, 'Why did you guys do this here? You could have done that, you could have done this.' "He somehow always challenges you, if that makes sense, in a very polite and constructive way. [He] doesn't take things superficially or stop challenging [things] just [to please] the environment. "This is not what we want, we want to be challenged."
McLaren: Being demanding elevates standards
Stella believes that Piastri's challenging of the team can have a positive impact. "In this sense, I said that he's a demanding guy that should elevate the standards," he explained. "Just by, in a way, being almost constantly a little unhappy, which is a good position for a driver to be [in]." As well as welcoming Piastri's attitude, Stella has also been impressed by how the 21-year-old has utilised time in the simulator. "You let him drive, and you can observe the way a driver challenges himself in terms of finding speed," Stella said. "There [are] drivers with whom you have to kind of guide the process, go on a step-by-step [process of], 'Okay, let's stop now. Let's look at some telemetry. Let's go for another run.' "While Oscar was pretty much able to go very close to the limit, just exploring his own resources with a lot of awareness and process. In this sense, he was impressive."
Most read
