Piastri taking nothing for granted

A 34-point advantage over his teammate is “not a comfortable gap” insists Oscar Piastri.

While the Australian and his teammate showed a lack of knowledge of the sport’s history on Saturday, a quick flip through the myriad of books on F1 reveal that greater points advantages have been overcome over the years, and in fewer races. On the other hand, much smaller advantages have been maintained.

Piastri and his teammate went into the weekend separated by 9 points, but following the Briton’s technical issue this has widened to 34.

Nonetheless, Piastri is taking nothing for granted.

“There’s still a long way to go,” he told reporters. “I need to keep pushing and trying to win races still. I wouldn’t say it’s a very comfortable margin,” he insisted.

“As we saw today, it can change with one DNF very, very quickly,” he continued. “So this far out from the end of the year, it’s not a comfortable gap.”

As was the case with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, Norris set the pace in all three practice sessions, but come Saturday afternoon…

“Qualifying was the key,” admitted the Australian. “Through the free practice sessions, it was looking like a difficult Zandvoort again, but we chipped away, tried to find time, tweaked the car here and there.

“I just tried to really improve how I was driving because, let’s be honest, it’s pretty hard to complain about the car we’ve got. So I just tried to chip away at that and it came good when it mattered. And through the race today, I felt like I had good pace as well and used that when I needed to, so I’m massively proud of firstly myself, but also the whole team around me in turning it around from twelve months ago.”

Asked about the turnaround, he said: “Nothing special, just trying to improve everywhere we can. At the start of this weekend it was looking like a difficult one, but I managed to get it together and then I was happy with the pace I had today. Very happy, obviously a couple of Safety Cars that spiced it up a little bit and we weathered it all so very proud of the whole team.

“It wasn’t just myself that improved to get here,” he added, “it was the whole team around me, without them none of this is possible. It’s a big team effort.

“It was a really good race,” he said. “Obviously, the restarts are always tough moments to get right, but I felt in control the whole time. Obviously, the ending was unfortunate for Lando and the team to not have a one-two when I think we really deserved it. But from my side, I’m very proud of the week we put together, being quick when it mattered.”

Of course, the term ‘mixed fortunes’ barely covers it.

“It hurts to lose,” Norris told Sky Sports, “It would have been 18, 19 point, whatever it is for second place to first, so a seven-point deficit. So it would’ve been smaller.

“The pace is there,” he added. “I was quick today. I mean, it’s impossible to overtake here, so with a good race today all I was really hoping for was to be safe within five seconds for the most part of the race.

“I was happy that I could stay within one-and-a-half, two for the majority,” he continued. “It doesn’t look it, but that’s an impressive race around here from our side with how much dirty air there is and you struggle with the tyres and tyre temperatures while following.

“It was a positive race, but it didn’t mean anything. I couldn’t get past, Oscar drove a good race, he deserved it today. But it’s just not my weekend. I was unlucky yesterday with the fight for pole, unlucky today, but that’s life, I just take it on the chin and move on.

“I was quick today, I thought I could fight for a win. If you’re fighting for a win around here, that’s normally just a good job already. So I’ll take the positives, I’ll try to bounce back. I’ve got tough competition, so it’s never going to be easy, but I’ll really make sure I do everything I can.”

As it stands, McLaren is unsure of the exact cause of Norris’s retirement.

“We have some initial indication based on the data,” said Andrea Stella, “but in fairness, we don’t have full proof of what has happened on Lando’s car, so I would refrain from making any speculation about whether it’s a problem on the chassis side or it’s a problem on the engine side.

“In fairness, in terms of the result, it doesn’t make a big difference, even in how this is perceived, let me say,” he added. “I want to take the opportunity to remind ourselves that we just see a chassis engine as a single team. So, we will see technically where the problem is, we will fix it, and we will go again, but at the moment it’s unclear on which side the problem is.”

Check out our Sunday gallery from Zandvoort here.