Oscar Piastri demands McLaren learn their lessons from the F1 2025 Emilia Romagna GP after poor decisions on strategy allowed the victory to slip away from the Australian at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
The 23-year-old had started on pole position but was far too conservative into the Tamburello chicane when the lights went out, allowing Max Verstappen to snatch the lead from the championship leader.
From there, the Red Bull driver quickly moved himself out of touching distance as he began to assume command of the 63-lap race. Feeling the chance to win slowly ebb away, McLaren‘s pit wall made the decision to commit to a two-stop race early.
Their driver from Melbourne pitted on Lap 13 but found himself lost in traffic down the grid as many others looked at making a one-stop possible, ensuring that he had to use him his tyres to climb back up the order.
Ultimately, this left him well out of distance of Verstappen and when the virtual safety car came out, allowed Alex Albon’s Williams and Lando Norris, in the other papaya car to get ahead too.
He eventually did get back up to second, but that was only when Norris pitted under a full safety car in a bid to take the fight to the Red Bull ahead and he quickly passed his teammate at the restart.
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That’s why Piastri demands McLaren learn their lessons after the 2025 Emilia Romagna GP, so that naive strategy doesn’t cost him vital points in the future as he chases down his first ever championship title.
“I think, obviously, slight disappointment probably,” Piastri told media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “It’s never a great day when you start first and finish third, so just not a great day.
“I think Turn 1 was not ideal. I think in the end our pit stop timing wasn’t right. The race panned out differently to how we expected in that first stint, so the timing of the VSC and the safety car made it a very tough race from early on.
“Honestly, given people had fresher tyres at the end, hanging onto a podium is not a bad result. You’re going to have tough days in the championship, and this is clearly one of them. As long as we learn the lessons, that’s all I can ask.”
Piastri: One-stop strategy not an easy McLaren call at Emilia Romagna GP
However, he isn’t completely harsh on his McLaren engineers on Andrea Stella’s pit wall, as he points out that it wasn’t an easy call to make the decision to commit to the two-stopper or try to make a one-stop work.
The grid found themselves largely split with the idea and the likes of Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc and George Russell also lost out too. Piastri ultimately thinks they made the decision too early and insists it is something the team has to learn from all the same.
“It wasn’t clear,” Piastri added, of how viable a one-stopper was. “But I think a lot of people around were struggling. I was starting to struggle a bit.
“We kind of discussed it a bit, I guess, but it’s something we still need to go through more clearly because I think maybe we reacted a bit too quickly. We’ll have a look.”
