How Oscar Piastri's fearlessness won him the Belgian GP: ‘As brave as I dared'

New York Times

8 hours ago

SPA, Belgium — From second on the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri knew he'd likely get one real shot at winning the race.
A stunning lap for pole in sprint qualifying on Friday, arguably one of the best by anyone so far this season, had actually left Piastri exposed. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was able to use the long run exiting La Source, up Eau Rouge and Raidillon and along the Kemmel Straight to blast past Piastri, taking a lead he would never relinquish. Strangely, it had been better to start second than first.
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Come Sunday's race, though, it was Piastri who had that 'advantage,' lining up behind teammate Lando Norris after losing out on Saturday afternoon. He'd get the same opportunity Verstappen did, albeit in damp conditions after a rain shower delayed the start by over an hour.
That didn't deter Piastri from pulling off a brave, brilliant move to overtake Norris just as they left the crest of Raidillon, ducking out of his teammate's rooster tails and sweeping into the lead. Like Verstappen did one day earlier, Piastri didn't look back, going on to win the race.
'I knew it was going to be crucial,' Piastri said of the move in the post-race news conference. 'I had a good run out of Turn 1 and then tried to be as brave as I dared through Eau Rouge and was able to stay pretty close.
'After that, the slipstream did the rest for me. I knew that was going to be important to win the race today.'
After back-to-back defeats to Norris at Spielberg and Silverstone, it was a big weekend for Piastri to break his title rival's momentum and stretch his points lead in the drivers' standings once again — it is now at 16 points.
The move through Eau Rouge and Raidillon was a crucial showing that, for all the calm that he shows externally and is arguably his greatest strength, there is a killer instinct that lies beneath; an ability to seize such a moment when it really mattered.
The suggestion from McLaren post-race was that Norris was compromised somewhat, admitting that he'd not had the cleanest exit out of Turn 1. Soon after being overtaken, Norris complained on the radio that he was struggling with his battery pack — an important boost with these hybrid power units — only to be informed that a lot of it had been used up on the restart.
Andrea Stella, McLaren's team principal, told reporters after the race there was a 'slight anomaly' with the battery, but that it happened to both cars. 'Nothing that should have penalized Lando in particular compared to Oscar,' Stella said. 'We're still checking the data, but this is the initial feedback I received.
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'I think the overtake ultimately came because it's very difficult for the car that leads the pack to arrive first at corner five. It's not impossible, but it does require you to have a decent advantage as you cross the finish line, which was not the case for Lando at the restart.'
Norris's case wasn't helped by a slightly scruffy exit from the Bus Stop chicane as the race returned to green after four laps behind the safety car, allowing Piastri to make a small gain. He then struggled with wheelspin exiting La Source — as the lead car, he was the first to encounter the damp conditions — while Piastri was able to firmly get on the throttle, setting up the chance to go for a move.
Piastri knew he couldn't get too close to the rear of Norris's car as they went down the hill toward Eau Rouge and the start of the incline, necessitating a small lift on the throttle. But then it became about negotiating the left, uphill right and kink back left over the top of the hill without losing any of that momentum.
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'The move through Eau Rouge, I knew it was going to be by far my best opportunity to try and win the race,' Piastri said, wryly smiling after The Athletic asked when he'd started plotting it. 'I'd been thinking about it for a while, put it that way. Obviously, in those conditions, it's a little bit more difficult than if it's dry. I knew that I had to try and do that.'
The wet track meant any thought of taking Eau Rouge and Raidillon flat, as they would with ease in the dry, had to be put aside. It was a question of how little both drivers would be willing to lift, and what momentum they could carry.
The data points to Norris actually backing off less than Piastri did through Eau Rouge, carrying a bit more speed and drifting more toward the left as a result. But as they crested Raidillon, Norris had to ease off the throttle slightly, dropping to 88 percent application; Piastri stayed flat out, helping him close up a little more.
That gain, combined with the slipstream afforded to Piastri by sitting right behind his teammate's gearbox, was crucial to Piastri making the move and winning the race. As they emerged from Raidillon, Piastri was around 3-5 km/h faster than Norris, setting him up to easily sweep past. The majority of moves along the Kemmel Straight are carried out much closer to the braking zone at Les Combes. In this case, Piastri had to very quickly duck out from behind Norris to avoid touching him. He even had time to cover the inside, having been as much as 13 km/h faster on the straight.
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An impressive move to the watch, and one that took real commitment in the cockpit. 'When I watched the onboard back, it didn't look quite as scary as it felt in the car,' Piastri said, having called the move 'lively' in the parc ferme interview carried out right after the checkered flag. 'I knew that I had to be very committed to pull that off.'
Much as Piastri knew that would likely be his best chance to get Norris, Norris was well aware he'd be exposed leading the pack. 'Oscar came past me pretty easily,' he said. 'So even if I had a better Turn 1, his run and the slipstream probably still would have got me.'
Even with 39 laps still to run, it was a move that decided the race. Piastri was able to pull out a small buffer to Norris as the track dried. By leading on the track, he had priority when it came to pitting for slick tires, coming in on Lap 12. McLaren did give Norris the option to pit on the same lap as Piastri, according to Stella, but Norris decided to stay out and avoid losing time behind his teammate in the pit lane.
'It was just more painful for me that Oscar got the good lap,' Norris said. 'I had to go one lap longer. That's life.'
Norris was able to differentiate from Piastri on strategy by taking hard tires instead of mediums, which would degrade sooner and be trickier to manage until the end of the race. But the extra lap on slicks for Piastri meant his two-second buffer before pitting grew to nine by the time both McLarens had made the switch.
Managing the mediums all the way to the end was still a huge ask for Piastri, who felt good 'for about five laps' on the tire before realizing he could be exposed. 'I was a bit nervous considering we had nearly 25 laps to go at that point. So, I had to be a bit careful, but it held on in the end much better than I feared.'
By the end of the race, Norris was routinely gaining six-tenths of a second per lap on Piastri, all of which was coming through the tighter middle sector, but he couldn't get any closer than three seconds before the checkered flag.
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This was a victory that summed up why Piastri is such a mighty contender going for his first F1 world title. He managed the race perfectly on the mediums, but to put himself in the lead in the first place, it required a big slice of bravery in a handful of decisive seconds.
'There is very, very little between our two drivers, and this is because the two drivers are racing at a very, very high level,' said Stella. 'We are lucky at McLaren to have two drivers that, deservedly, are fighting for the world championship.
'I think the difference will be made by the accuracy, the precision, the quality of the execution. We saw in Silverstone that an issue, a sporting issue for Oscar, during the safety car restart and the consequent penalty cost him the race.
'Here we saw that, related to the circuit characteristic, like we said before, it would have always been very difficult for Lando to keep the position, starting first at the safety car restart.
'At the same time, I think Lando didn't help himself by not having a great gap on the finish line. So I think the execution is what is going to make the main difference.'
In a year where they are so evenly matched, these are the moments that will prove decisive. On Sunday, it was Piastri who made it really count.
(Top photo of Oscar Piastri:)