Piastri highlights ‘exceptional’ support behind F1 success

Piastri is Formula 1’s newest winner after taking the chequered flag at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The result made him the seventh different race winner of the season, and the second first-time winner after his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris won the Miami Grand Prix in May.

Piastri headed a McLaren one-two in Hungary, underscoring the progress the team has made in quick time.

After starting 2023 behind the eight-ball, mid-season upgrades transformed the operation into a front-runner.

Further progress has been made this year, with the MCL38 considered at least as quick – if not quicker – than the Red Bull Racing RB20.

McLaren sits just 42 points back from Red Bull Racing in the constructors’ championship, having at one point trailed it by well over 100, further highlighting the progress the team has made over the past 18 months.

Team principal Andrea Stella has been credited with much of that turnaround.

The Italian took over from Andreas Seidl in December 2022 and quickly restructured the technical team; the same staff who developed last year’s season-starting MCL60 transformed it into a podium contender.

In truth, the foundation for the current success pre-dates Stella’s promotion though he has done wonders for its confidence during his time in charge.

He’s set to hang around too, with McLaren announcing he signed an extension in the days following the Belgian Grand Prix.

It’s a key element; settled leadership between Stella and CEO Zak Brown overseeing a young driver pairing that drive each other forward.

“With Lando, we’re obviously team-mates and we get along well, we work together very well, but of course we want to beat each other,” Piastri told Speedcafe of his relationship with Norris.

“It’s how racing drivers are, full stop. But we get along well.”

The pair shared a late-night junk food run in the wake of Piastri’s Hungarian GP success, an event where tensions within the team did escalate.

Afforded track position to cover the threat posed by third-placed Lewis Hamilton, Norris was reluctant to give the place back to his team-mate, who’d controlled the race.

It was a test of the team’s culture, which passed by a whisker as Norris finally relented in the final laps.

Throughout those increasingly tense closing stages of the Hungarian GP, at no point did Stella interject with either driver.

Instead, he empowered race engineers Will Joseph (Norris) and Tom Stallard (Piastri) to manage the situation with their drivers and deliver the best result for the broader team.

“Andrea has been a pivotal part in McLaren’s success, and my success in F1,” Piastri noted

“Firstly, I think his background in the sport helps a lot in terms of experience, in terms of race-winning experience, championship-winning experience.

“He knows what it’s like, which helps, but I think more so than that, just the natural leadership that he has is remarkable.

“It’s been very nice working with him as a team principal.”

Piastri was initially hired by McLaren CEO, Zak Brown.

While Stella leads the team day-to-day, Brown oversees the operation with an eye to its commercial health. That extends to working with Stella on recruitment.

As Ricciardo battled for form in the early part of 2022, and Piastri’s future at Alpine was less than certain, Brown was a central figure in securing the highly rated youngster.

It was a significant gamble for McLaren, which paid Ricciardo handsomely to end his three-year contract a year early in favour of his young compatriot.

That show of faith isn’t lost on Piastri, who has spoken openly about the importance of feeling wanted by the organisation.

“Of course, he’s very involved in getting the key people in the right places, and bringing on-board all the partners that we have; whether that’s to help fund the team or also to make us a faster team through technical partnerships and stuff like that,” Piastri explained.

“I get one really well with Zak as well.

“Quite contrasting personalities between Andrea and Zak, but I think it’s quite a good balance to have.”

In the car, Piastri is managed by Tom Stallard, a former Olympic rower who also engineered Ricciardo during his time at McLaren.

While the most visible member of Piastri’s on-event support team, he is only part of a group of engineers who work with the Melburnian.

Alongside Stallard is Adrian Goodwin, Piastri’s principal race engineer, who also formerly worked with Ricciardo but also Carlos Sainz and Stoffel Vandoorne.

Completing the trio is Cedric Michel-Grosjean, senior performance engineer, who works hand in glove with Stallard and Goodwin.

The maturing of the relationship across the quartet is another key ingredient, Piastri suggested, in allowing him to develop and deliver.

“Getting more experienced together, as well as going through some really good times, some tougher experiences as well, I think are helping build us as a group.”

Supported, challenged, and motivated to perform, the structure and personnel in key positions is laying the building blocks of a career that has already netted a grand prix win and helped drive McLaren to second in the constructors’ championship.

With stability within the ranks and a McLaren regarded by some as the fastest car on the grid, it’s an exceptional place to be.