Oscar Piastri conceded it was “completely fair” for McLaren to ask him to move over for Lando Norris in Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix.
“In Melbourne, Norris and Piastri secured third and fourth place respectively, trailing behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. McLaren instructed Piastri to switch positions with Norris before the halfway point of the race.”
However, although the Australian driver was disappointed about not achieving a podium finish in front of his home fans, he acknowledged that the exchange was justifiable because he had made an earlier move to pass his teammate during the race, and afterwards Norris had better performance with newer tires.
“For me, it was completely fair,” Piastri said. “He qualified in front of me yesterday, went a bit longer on the first stop and he was catching me and was quicker at that point of the race.
“At that point, I was keeping with Leclerc and Lando was catching both of us, so I was honestly kind of hoping he’d be past me and go and get Charles.
“Of course, at home, I would have loved to be able to stay in third. But for me, that was completely fair.”
Norris duly distanced Piastri and closed in on Leclerc, but didn’t have enough in the bank to challenge the Ferrari, saying getting undercut in the first round of pitstops is where he lost a chance at finishing second.
Piastri mentioned he was pleased with McLaren’s impressive performance during the weekend but also expressed disappointment with his own errors.
During the middle part of the race, he veered off track at the second-to-last corner, describing it as a minor setback, and struggled to complete a flawless qualifying lap on Saturday. “I believe this weekend has been successful for me.
There were a few errors at crucial moments which is disappointing, but overall today’s outcome was good,” he commented. “In the middle towards the end of the second stint, I made a slight mistake which caused the tires to wear down, leading to some difficulties in that section of the race.”
“I couldn’t recover after losing them, so there are lessons to be learned to improve. Other than that, it was a successful day.”
I was most surprised by Sergio Perez’s speed. I had anticipated him performing well, but he did not. This may give hope to other drivers on the grid.