Oscar Piastri is 23 years old, but he looks much older every time he gets into his car. If Kimi Raikkonen earned the nickname Iceman, the Australian seems to be frozen, very appropriate if we take into account that he was born in Melbourne, a fantastic city for all those who flee the heat. In his second season in the Formula 1 World Championship, the kid is proving to be capable of offering his best version in any register, attacking or defending, always brilliant as Mark Webber’s pupil, who has managed to mold a driver with all the virtues that he had, but without the emotional point that harmed him so much in his time. In Baku, one of the most monumental circuits on the calendar, a stage that mixes dizzying sections with other very slow ones, which twist like a snail, like the passageway of the castle, Piastri nailed a Sunday for history, riding a car that was not the fastest of the day, a circumstance that gives even more value to what he achieved.
The McLaren driver caught Charles Leclerc off guard and stole the Ferrari driver’s wallet, who tried to return it to him and went from fighting for the win to being on the verge of missing out on the podium. If the Monegasque driver finished second it was due to the misfortune of Carlos Sainz and Checo Pérez, who got tangled up right behind him on the penultimate lap, crashed into the wall and forced the race to end with a neutralisation. George Russell took advantage of this to finish third, while Fernando Alonso finished sixth.
The day was a day of praise for Piastri and McLaren. The driver, for everything he did on the track, and his team, for the work they did off it, within the confines of the Technology Center, the secret laboratory of the papaya cars. Despite not driving the fastest prototype, the boy threw himself like a lion at Leclerc’s neck on the only opportunity he had (lap 20), just after he had stopped by the garage to change the tyres, and launched the car at him practically from Australia. The Ferrari driver blinked and when he opened his eyes he saw himself second, surely wondering how many laps he would have to take to regain control of the pack. He had time; he didn’t have weapons. Despite the pressure he put on his rival, Leclerc was unable to overtake him again, sealing an almost perfect Sunday for the British team: Piastri’s second win, combined with Lando Norris’ fourth place – he started 15th – and Red Bull’s debacle, allowed the Woking team to overtake the Red Buffalo at the top of the constructors’ points table, something they had not achieved since 2014.
With its pair of young talents, McLaren has two gems and a problem on the horizon. This week, after the brawl between the two at Monza – Piastri threw the car at Norris on the first lap and opened the door for Ferrari to win – the executive of the British structure sat the two drivers down and asked them to be sensible, to try to think of the common good without forgetting the individual. Norris’s mistake in the qualifying session eliminated him from the equation and freed his neighbour from the workshop, who pulled out of the hat one of the races of his life.
“After the stop I saw that I was closer to Charles, and that I had more grip. I felt that I had to go for it,” said Piastri. “If I didn’t pass him at the start of the session, I wouldn’t be able to do it in my life,” added the young man from Victoria, who in just one year has witnessed a practically miraculous revitalisation of his prototype. “When I joined the team last year we were literally last, and now we lead the World Championship,” reflected the star of the day in Azerbaijan. “It was a perfect execution by Oscar. It wasn’t a surprise for us, because we have worked with him for about 40 Grand Prix and we know the talent and mental strength that he has. There is nothing that bothers him,” said Andrea Stella, the McLaren director.
With this result, the winner in Baku will go to Singapore next week 91 points behind Max Verstappen, who finished fifth and remains in the lead, although he looks more vulnerable than ever. This is exactly the opposite of the image projected by the winner, who is in an unbeatable dynamic: with 135 points, he is the member of the grid who has scored the most points in the last seven races.
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