F1 News
Piastri's engineer explains how Piastri has improved so quickly in F1
The 2024 season has been one of huge improvement for Oscar Piastri. In the earlier races during the season, the Australian was struggling to even make the top five as he continued to get to grips with Formula 1. Now, the 23-year-old has two race wins to his name and sits just 32 points behind his teammate Lando Norris in the drivers' championship. But how has Piastri made these quick improvements? His race engineer Tom Stallard explains.
Piastri had a superb rookie season in 2023, scoring two podiums along with a sprint win at the Qatar Grand Prix to mark his first season in the premier class of motorsport. However, the Australian had a slow start to the 2024 season, with his first podium coming eight races into the season at the Monaco Grand Prix, with P8s in both Japan and China disappointing results.
However, five podium finishes, including two wins at the Hungarian and Azerbaijan Grands Prix, since his podium in the Principality has shown the improvement that has been made by the 23-year-old, which has also led to McLaren now taking the lead in the constructors' championship as they travel to the Singapore Grand Prix.
"The sky is the limit" for a constantly improving Piastri
But what is the reason for this great span of results? Stallard explained while speaking to the F1 Nation podcast: "We've been working really hard with Oscar this year on race tyre management and we've made massive strides with that. Last year there were various races where really the tyres got out from underneath him and we ended up not really representing his ability because we couldn't manage the tyres effectively.
"This year, we've had one or two of those earlier in the year, maybe China and Japan weren't his greatest. But since then, he's now in a good place with the tyre management. It's no longer a weakness. There's plenty to learn, but he's improving all the time with his understanding of the tyres," continued the race engineer.
Stallard, a former British Olympian, has worked with many drivers across his time as a race engineer, including world champion Jenson Button, Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo. But does Piastri show world champion qualities at just 22 years of age? "Yes, absolutely," agreed Stallard. "His rate of improvement hasn't really dulled in 39 races. He keeps learning, he keeps improving, he keeps wanting information, going through stuff, we discuss things, and he goes and executes it.
"If you're improving at that rate, what is the limit? The sky's the limit. And realistically, the limit comes when that improvement flattens off, and at the moment, we've seen no sign of that flattening off," concluded the race engineer.