Andrea Stella’s pre-race message to Oscar Piastri confirms he’s now unofficially McLaren’s number two
Oscar Piastri outqualified McLaren teammate Lando Norris at the United States Grand Prix but ended up finishing 22 seconds behind. Piastri led McLaren’s fourth-row lockout after Norris’ best lap time, which would have been good enough for P6, was deleted. But Piastri let Norris through in the opening laps, a move that was clearly justified based on the margin at the end of the race. Norris told his team he had more pace than Piastri in the early stages, and he proved as much after the swap took place. Piastri was simply informed that Norris was on a different strategy before he duly moved out of the world champion’s way. But in actual fact, their strategies were effectively the same. Both started on medium tyres and pitted for hards only a lap apart, with Piastri first in on lap 15. Piastri didn’t seem to have any qualms with the tactic, and rightly so. But it’s still significant that…
