Since Lando Norris scored his breakthrough victory in Miami two months ago, McLaren can believe with some justification that he could have had another five more wins.
During that time Norris has emerged as Max Verstappen’s closest championship rival, and the mistakes on his side of the garage have understandably received more scrutiny as a result.
But Norris isn’t the only McLaren driver who is counting the missed opportunities to win races. His far less experienced team mate Oscar Piastri, still only in his second full season of Formula 1, has arguably seen three chances slip through his grasp.
Norris was Verstappen’s greatest threat at Imola where he joined the Red Bull driver on the front row. But Piastri could have started second ahead of him: He qualified there but incurred a three-place grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen, an error McLaren could have easily avoided.
Piastri got his second place start in Monaco, alongside Charles Leclerc, but a first-lap red flag removed his only opportunity to attack the Ferrari driver through strategy.
In Austria, Piastri should have been there to pick up the pieces when Norris and Verstappen collided. George Russell, who started third, was, and again this was where Piastri should have lined up. A borderline track limits call, which still rankled deeply with McLaren days afterwards, meant he started sixth instead. Another second place, just 1.9 seconds off Russell, shows this was a win-able race for Piastri.
Both McLarens lost out due to poor strategic calls by McLaren a week later. In Piastri’s case the team’s decision not to pit both drivers together during the early rain spoiled his day. He was forced to crawl around for one more lap with slick tyres on a wet track, losing a huge amount of time.
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In the final stint Piastri avoided his team mate’s mistake of taking the soft tyres. His pace on the mediums was superb, and had he gone into the closing laps without the deficit he incurred prior to his first stop, he would have been a contender.
Given how close he has come to winning already, the McLaren driver with just 34 grand prix starts to his name, who is already a sprint race winner, believes he’s “definitely ready to do it” in the main event.
Piastri is taking heart from the fact he isn’t repeating the same errors. “I think the kind of good thing, but kind of bad thing…
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