The result marked a year since Piastri last stood on the top step of the podium, while Norris secured another victory to strengthen a season that has already delivered two Grand Prix wins and a Sprint victory.
Piastri has managed only two podium finishes this year and again struggled for pace in the latter stages of the race at Zandvoort.
Despite showing strong speed early on, Piastri faded after a second pit stop and eventually finished behind both Ferrari drivers.
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella said the Australian’s difficulties are largely technical rather than mental. “I think last year we had seen already with Oscar that from a technical driving point of view, when the car has this low level of grip, he needs to adapt the way he drives,” Stella said.
Stella explained that the characteristics of the MCL40 require Piastri to process information differently instead of relying purely on instinct. “So, I think it’s one of those cases in which you have to adapt your natural driving style to the demands of the car,” Stella said.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with any psychological kind of opportunity. This is purely technical.”
Piastri briefly looked set for a strong finish after overtaking Mercedes driver George Russell and moving into third place.
However, Stella said several factors outside the driver’s control contributed to the disappointing result. “When we pitted to cover Russell, actually we lost the position to Russell because of a slow pit stop. And this is up to the team, not up to Oscar,” Stella said.
Stella also revealed that McLaren struggled to get the hard tyres working during Piastri’s second stint. “We were not able to switch these tyres on. They stayed permanently in a regime of very, very low grip,” Stella said.
Stella noted that Formula One’s current competitiveness leaves little margin for mistakes. “We are in a phase of Formula One in which we have at least three teams that are within one tenth of a second,” Stella said.
“If you’re not optimised, now you are P6. It’s very brutal from this point of view.”
Despite the setback, Stella said McLaren has seen encouraging signs from Piastri and expects further improvements during the remainder of the season.
–F1/ChannelAfrica–
