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McLaren team boss Andrea Stella felt Oscar Piastri made “remarkable” progress over the course of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend.
The Australian was critical of his own performances during practice before nailing a Qualifying lap that left him just 0.02s away from a Qualifying 3 berth.
He then raced his way into the points, surviving difficult mixed conditions that even caught out race winner Max Verstappen at points.
It highlighted Piastri’s now trademark approach of building into a weekend, adopting a low-risk approach through practice before stepping up his performances when it comes to Qualifying and the race itself.
“I think the first remarkable step forward during this weekend was yesterday in Qualifying,” Stella said of Piastri after the race.
“Up until the last session before Qualifying, he was more than half a second off Lando’s pace, with a bit of head scratching as to how would we go in Qualifying.
“Instead, Q1 was already competitive.
“We have this sense of ‘we have an objective, we go and get it; we have an objective, we go and get it.’
“That seems to be working very well with Oscar right from the start.”
In the race, Piastri held station in 11th at the start and gained track position following Norris’ stop, which came just prior to the rain arriving in Monaco.
That was a deliberate ploy from McLaren, as the Brit was running out of tyres; by pitting him for fresh rubber, it extended the window before having to switch to intermediate tyres, and covered the risk of both crashing on poor rubber, and if the shower proved to be passing.
As it was, the rain remained and both McLaren drivers took on intermediate tyres, Norris stopping for a second time before passing Piastri on track to reclaim 10th place.
That became ninth in the closing laps as he reeled in Yuki Tsunoda in the Scuderia AlphaTauri, who then fell victim to Piastri in a nearly identical move a lap later.
It was that pass, Stella suggests, was the second indicator of progress.
“In the race there was, if anything, another element of building race craft, which is a racing situation in which you first keep it on track with no mistakes, on dry tyres, on a track that is getting wet – and quite wet in some places,” Stella said.
“And then finding the rhythm in between the walls on the intermediate tyres.
“To be honest, for being a rookie, this is going to the most optimistic plan we could anticipate for Oscar.”
The 22-year-old however did more than simply circulate and stay out of trouble; he moved forward and delivered his second points result of the season.
And it was the pass on Tsunoda that caught the eye not just for the result it delivered.
In Melbourne, the local favourite found himself stuck behind the Scuderia AlphaTauri.
There, team-mate Norris was able to catch and clear both Piastri and Tsunoda quickly – Piastri replicated the move, but it took him time to do so.
Just three races later, on a circuit that is both more demanding and punishing, in far more difficult conditions, there was no such delay.
“You make a very valid example,” Stella said when Speedcafe put that scenario to him.
“Telling the story is easy; okay, you can overtake in corner one. But go there and do it when actually in fact, if you see the overtake, he locks the fronts.
“Those are the situations in which, if you’re not good enough, good enough of getting the front wheels out of the lock, boom.
“Then a good story becomes like ‘Lando did it, you didn’t do it’.
“So it’s actually strong evidence that he picks up very rapidly.
“We shouldn’t under evaluate the conditions in which this is happening, where it’s so easy to go one millimetre beyond and, how do you say, hero to zero.”
