Piastri’s Daring Gamble Pays Off: A Thrilling Azerbaijan F1 GP Win
Oscar Piastri’s Sensational Victory at the Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix
The turning point in Oscar Piastri’s sensational victory at the Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix came at the start of lap 20, just after he and race leader Charles Leclerc had both pitted for new tyres.
Leclerc built up a lead of nearly six seconds in the opening stint and Piastri was under pressure to be passed by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
The latter challenge was solved by Perez emerging from the pits behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, with Norris able to hold off the Mexican for a few laps, allowing Piastri to drive the final two laps faster before being able to exit the pits while still maintaining a better track position than the Red Bull.
However, what Piastri did not expect was that Ferrari driver Leclerc, who pitted a lap later, was struggling to quickly warm up the hard tyres to the right temperature, and how much of a time gap Piastri would be able to widen over Leclerc.
Just like at the start of the race, Piastri was once again trailing Leclerc. In the first stint, Piastri, who was running both cars on medium compound tyres, continued to put pressure on Leclerc for several laps, causing the front tyres to lose grip.
As Piastri closed in behind the Ferrari, his engineer Tom Strahd warned: “Be smart, you’ve already damaged the front tyre when you attacked Leclerc.” In other words, Piastri was warned not to repeat himself and attack too early on new tyres so he could attack later.
Strahd’s advice was logical. If the chasing car can use DRS (which here is worth about 0.35 seconds) to keep up with the leader, it can go through the corner about 0.35 seconds slower and therefore have less tire life than the leader.
Of course, being in the turbulence of the car in front, which is necessary to achieve DRS, is complicated by the fact that the car tends to shake, increasing tyre degradation and putting peak loads on the rubber.
Strahd believed that prioritizing attack in the first stint didn’t work, so he should avoid attacking in the second stint. Piastri thought otherwise.
“I had a similar opportunity in my first stint,” Piastri explained. “I was inside the DRS on lap two or three, but I didn’t take full advantage of that opportunity. Then at the end of the straight I said, ‘If I had done something a little bit different here, I would have had a better chance.” I was thinking, ‘Maybe there was.’
“So when I had a chance like that after the pit stop, I had to take it. That’s why I won the race.”
In fact, he could have damaged his tyres in his first stint if he had gotten to the lead early and taken advantage of the clean air to more than make up for how much he had used them to get away.
When his chance came, at the start of lap 20, he didn’t hesitate and brought his McLaren from far back up the inside of the Ferrari to take the lead.
“At that point I felt I couldn’t stay back and wait for Charles (Leclerc)’s tyres to wear out. I thought that would secure me second place, but finishing second was impossible. I wasn’t really interested in that. I knew that if I didn’t pass him at the beginning of the stint, I would never be able to pass him.”
“But I knew that getting to the top was 40 percent of the work and staying there was 60 percent. I knew I had worked really hard on the tires to get to the top and that was the first step. I also knew what kind of impact I had during my time there.
“So I was hoping that the clean air would help me stay in front, I think it definitely helped a little bit, but without DRS you obviously lose a lot of time, so just trying to keep Charles behind was extremely stressful for Tayo.”
the Ferrari’s front tyres failed and it fell into a ravine with four laps to go, and Piastri managed to break away well beyond the reach of the Ferrari’s DRS. The gamble paid off, but it took common sense and courage to pull it off.
Category: Formula 1 / F1 Azerbaijan GP / McLaren F1 Team / Oscar Piastri