Piastri and Schumacher: Stella compares mistakes and highlights learning

Andrea Stella Defends Oscar Piastri After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expressed his confidence that the disastrous Azerbaijan Grand Prix was an isolated event for Oscar Piastri. Stella, who worked with Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, pointed out that even the most outstanding drivers have had comparable weekends. Piastri’s streak of 34 consecutive races scoring points came to an end on Sunday, when he crashed into the wall at Turn 5 during the first lap in Baku. This error added to a crash in the classification, which left him ninth on the grid, and a false start before the lights went out, which caused his car to enter anti-stall mode and fall to the back of the grid.

I’ve worked with multi-champion drivers, and in a season, every season, even the most dominant ones, even by one of the best drivers in the history of Formula 1, like Michael Schumacher, I’ve seen events like this.

Andrea Stella

Stella emphasized that these disappointing weekends are inevitable, even for the best drivers. He highlighted that, despite the setbacks, Piastri will learn valuable lessons that will strengthen him.

The damage to Piastri’s campaign was limited, as his teammate and championship rival, Lando Norris, could only manage seventh place in Sunday’s race, reducing the Australian’s lead in the standings to 25 points. Stella added that Piastri is processing the situation and is already focused on learning from his mistakes. He described Piastri’s false start as an “excess of enthusiasm” and expressed his conviction that his driver will recover in the remaining seven rounds. Stella highlighted Piastri’s ability to learn and improve quickly, a quality that, according to him, has led him to success in all categories and that will continue to drive him in his Formula 1 career.