Chris Piastri has revealed to ditching his traditionally calm persona and instead was left “jumping up and down like crazy” after watching his son Oscar’s stunning late qualifying lap for the British Grand Prix.
As the clock ticked down on a tricky session at Silverstone, Oscar Piastri delivered a superb time in the closing stages to land third position on the grid for the race at Silverstone behind polesitter Max Verstappen and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
After what has been a tricky debut campaign to date for the young Australian, with the 22-year-old Melburnian finally at the wheel of an upgraded MCL60, he proved just why so much faith and hope have been placed in him.
Chris Piastri, speaking to Speedcafe in the Silverstone paddock, described Oscar’s display as “the things that dreams are made of”.
“It’s been such a journey, such an effort from everybody involved with Oscar,” he added.
“After the year off, and finally now it seems like the car’s going in the right direction for both the boys – I’m super happy for both Oscar and Lando – this is amazing.”
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Piastri has had to exercise considerable patience in waiting for such a moment after McLaren announced pre-season that it was behind in its development of the car.
The first raft of upgrades were handed to Norris at last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, with rookie Piastri having to bide his time for another few days before finally taking delivery of the new package.
Even for this weekend, however, Piastri remains a step behind Norris who is sporting additional developments on his MCL60 that his younger team-mate will have to wait until the Hungarian GP to receive.
“I’m just very, very happy that the car’s come good, the weather played nice, and when it counted, Oscar went and put a lap in,” said Chris. “Not quite Max, but he’ll get there.”
As to whether he was surprised at how the car performed, he remarked: “It’s hard to know because you get a little bit of the back channel as to where the team thinks they are.
“But I think everyone was surprised – pleasantly, of course – that there was a P2 and P3 in the car.
“But I know everyone back in the factory, there is just so much motivation. Everyone in this building here (the McLaren paddock building) is losing their minds right now.
“I’m calm most of the time but when he did that lap, we were all high-fiving and jumping up and down like crazy people. It was a pretty special moment.
“First P3 in quali, the car’s looking good, big crowd, McLaren’s home race, all that stuff, so yeah, it’s fantastic.”
As to whether he dares to dream of Oscar following up with a podium, he joked: “I can’t have too many good moments in one weekend!
“I spoke with Zak (Brown, McLaren CEO) and we’re both hoping for a boring race, a race where the front of the field spreads out and it’s just a nice, boring, run to the line, Oscar and Lando on the podium, P2 and P3, then I think that would be phenomenal.
“We’ll see. We’ll keep our fingers crossed and you never know what’s going to happen, as Lando showed in Austria.
“Hopefully, the tyres hang in and we’ll see what the British weather does. You never know.”
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