Andrea Stella says Oscar Piastri was an “inspiration” for McLaren as they bounced back from a nightmare start to the season with a podium finish at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Piastri missed the opening two races in Australia and China after crashing on his way to the grid in Melbourne and then suffering a mechanical problem in Shanghai, but he didn’t let that disappointment affect him in Japan, qualifying third and finishing second behind race winner Kimi Antonelli.
The McLaren driver was actually in a position to win the race, but lost out to Antonelli due to the safety car, but still managed to get past the other Mercedes drivers, George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
“Oscar missed two major races at the start of the season, but based on what we’ve seen in testing, practice and qualifying, and his overall demeanor and state of mind, I think we’re seeing the best version of Oscar, the strongest Oscar since he entered F1,” Stella said.
“He finally got the chance to do it (in Japan) and he made the most of it. Especially in his home race, he wasn’t in a position to start and he’s had two races in situations that were completely avoidable, so he could really get stuck. But if anything, I think we’ve seen his consistency, his strength and the strength that he’s inherited from the team.”
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Home hero Oscar Piastri crashes on his way to the grid for the Australian Grand Prix in his McLaren
Piastri himself, who is 51 points behind championship leader Antonelli, said Japan was “probably one of the best weekends in F1,” and Stella seemed to agree.
“The team takes a lot of inspiration from the charismatic leadership that our drivers can provide, which is definitely a boost for the whole team,” Stella continued.
“Well done to how Oscar handled himself at the start of the season. It’s up to McLaren and the team to once again give Lando and Oscar a car that can fight for wins. To be honest, I think we were surprised that we were in a position to win.”
“If we want to continue to be in this condition, we need to improve the chassis by a few tenths of a second. That’s the goal we have in terms of bringing upgrades to future races.”
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After driving the V8 supercar, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri sits down with Rachel Brooks to discuss his hopes for the season
Piastri: “It’s a long road to catching Mercedes”
Mercedes have made a strong start to the season, with the Silver Arrows leading Ferrari by 45 points and McLaren by 89 points after three races, but McLaren faces an uphill battle to defend last year’s constructors’ championship.
Piastri, who narrowly missed out on the drivers’ title to McLaren teammate Lando Norris last season, believes the team needs to not only improve the car’s pace but also overcome reliability issues.
“I’m very happy with my performance and I’m very happy with the performance of the whole team. Obviously, first of all, we still have to find out about the performance,” he said.
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Highlights of the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix.
“But also on the land side of the garage, we had a pretty disrupted weekend with all the issues. Obviously, the start of the season hasn’t been easy for us in terms of reliability, so we still have a long way to go. I think we’ve shown that if we do everything as well as we can, it can cause some headaches.”
Piastri said McLaren’s start performance had improved significantly after it moved from third to first before Turn 1 at Suzuka, underscoring McLaren’s fast start to practice earlier in the weekend.
He added: “It’s interesting to know that when other people have the fastest cars, it’s not that easy. And yeah, I think the fact that I was able to hold on to George for so long was really encouraging.”
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Oscar Piastri took the lead at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix as pole sitter Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes teammate George Russell fell back.
“But we’re under no illusions. We did everything right this weekend, but we still lost by 15 seconds, so there’s still a pretty big gap to close. I’m confident we can get there, but yes, we still have some work to do.”
F1 will resume with the second sprint weekend of the season, the Miami Grand Prix, from May 1-3, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports now – cancel anytime with no contract
