Piastri ignored race engineer on ’50/50′ overtake that won Azerbaijan GP

Oscar Piastri says his winning pass on Charles Leclerc in Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix came right after his race engineer urged him to bring in his new tyres cautiously.

Piastri made his winning move on lap 20 of the 53-lap one-stop race, right after the only pitstop sequence, with the McLaren driver and Leclerc fighting tooth and nail for the rest of what turned out to be punishing hard tyre stint for both.

In the cool-down room before the podium ceremony, Piastri told Leclerc he felt there was a 50/50 chance his late lunge would end up with the McLaren ingloriously clattering into the Turn 1 wall.

Later on, he explained why his high-risk pass felt like a case of ‘now or never’, and he revealed he actually went against advice from his race engineer Tom Stallard to take it easier on his tyres than he had done during the opening medium stint.

“I saw half an opportunity after the pitstop and knew I had to try and take it,” Piastri said.

“[The timing is] what won me the race. I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer because I basically tried to do that in the first stint and completely cooked my tyres. So, my engineer came on the radio and said, ‘Let’s not do that again’, basically.

“I completely ignored him the next lap and sent it down the inside…

Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, celebrates in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

“At that point, I felt like trying to stay back and wait for Charles to [suffer tyre] degradation was never going to happen. I thought we were just going to secure us P2.

“If I didn’t take that opportunity then I was never going to have another one, I think. Credit to Charles, he was incredibly fair. I think maybe he thought I was going to sail on into the run-off but I was pleasantly surprised that I actually made the corner.

“It was a high-risk, high-commitment move but that’s what I needed to do to try and win the race.”

But Piastri’s win wasn’t sealed there alone, as he then spent the next 30-odd laps being hounded by Leclerc who was trying to re-pass him into the same corner, with Piastri deftly defending before finally breaking out of DRS range towards the end.

“Trying to soak up that pressure for so long in that race that was incredibly tough,” the Australian acknowledged.

“Getting into the lead was going to be, let’s say 40% of the job, but I knew that hanging on to it was going to be 60%. I knew that I’d used the tyres pretty heavily to try and get in front, and I knew what kind of impact that had in the first stint, and I was just hoping that the clean air was going to help me stay ahead.

“It probably did a little bit, but then obviously you lose a lot of time with DRS, so trying to keep Charles behind was incredibly stressful. I couldn’t make a single mistake. I made a couple, but at a track like Baku, it’s impossible to be driving flat out and not make any.

“I was just fortunate that they weren’t big enough that it cost me. I think for me [it] has to be one of the best races I’ve done.”