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Oscar Piastri feels that McLaren was too hasty in terms of its tyre strategy at Imola, reacting to others instead of waiting to see how things developed.
On Lap 9, Pierre Gasly triggered what turned out to be the first round of pit stops, as drivers felt the mediums they’d opted for the start were degrading too quickly.
Running second, Piastri pitted on Lap 13 and rejoined in 12th, and though he quickly began to make his way back through the field, it was clear that the mediums were now coming back to those drivers that had persevered with them.
His cause wasn’t helped when the VSC was deployed, thereby allowing the race leader the opportunity to pit, while Piastri, now up to fourth, followed suit shortly after, two laps after his McLaren teammate who had preceded Verstappen.
Once the dust had settled Piastri was running third, however the late Safety Car allowed his teammate to fit another set of fresher (used) hards, which were enough to allow him to pass the Australian just six laps from the end.
“We kind of discussed it a bit,” he said of his early stop, “but it’s something we still need to go through more clearly, because I think maybe we reacted a bit too quickly. But we’ll have a look.
“With the timing of the VSC and the Safety Car, the race was very tough from very early on,” he added. “Honestly, given people had fresher tyres at the end, hanging on to a podium is not a bad result.”
Asked about Verstappen’s move at the start, he said: “I thought I had it pretty under control, and it was a good move from Max. So, yeah, you know, I’ll learn for next time, clearly.
“I think at that point I wasn’t overly concerned to not be in the lead,” he added. “But then our pace just wasn’t as strong as I expected. So that compounded that first corner.
“You’re going to have tough days in the championship, and this is clearly one of them,” he admitted. “So as long as we learn the lessons, then that’s all I can ask.”
Meanwhile, McLaren defended its decision not to call on Piastri to yield to his teammate following his stop under the Safety Car. On fresher rubber, Norris, though keen to make clear that he was not asking for priority, pointed out that he had more pace and was therefore in a better position to take the fight to Verstappen whose lead had all but evaporated due to the Safety Car’s deployment.
Eventually the team agreed, but it was too late.
“Today we attempted to unlock various scenarios to try and beat Max,” said Andrea Stella, “but at no stage I think we saw that we had enough race pace.
“Even when, with the final Safety Car, Lando could pass Oscar and try to push as much as possible, pretty much Max was responding to Lando,” he added.
“Here to overtake you need seven, eight-tenths of a second, so I think it’s what it is. The main factor remains the swap of position and the outcome of lap one.
“We discussed these kind of scenarios before the race, so we don’t enter the race with everything to be debated live,” he explained. “And we know that when you have degradation, you need the new tyres and you need to stay out on new tyres even if Imola is not the easiest track to overtake.
“Not only you can be re-overtaken by those that pitted, but you can be overtaken multiple times, which I think is what happened today with Leclerc. So I think with Oscar we were happy to take a bit of risk because we know that the car is competitive and we knew that the tyres were not going off completely and Oscar wanted to play this car to try and see if he could gain a position. Fair enough, the drivers are free to race from his point of view.
“But Lando was quite convinced that he wanted the new tyres because he would have been able to re-overtake. And again, if we wanted to have a chance with Max, we did need the new tyres. So I think it was a relatively straightforward decision.”
When Norris did overtake his teammate, Piastri didn’t make it easy, the two almost clashing in the process.
“I was on better tyres, but I didn’t expect anything,” said the Briton. “It was still a tough fight. It was close into turn one, but that’s the way it should be, of course.
“I lost time through that, and then he loses time, but it’s what we have to do in order to battle for a championship. If you try and make someone happy, the other one’s going to be unhappy, so it’s the way it is. I think we handled it well, and it was a good job by the team.
“What was our biggest strength two weekends ago turned into not being good enough this weekend, so it shows how quickly things can change,” he admitted. “I think we’re happy otherwise, it’s still a good team result and that’s the main thing.”
Of course, this further indication of the increase of tension within the Papaya camp will only play into Verstappen’s hands.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Imola here.
