Piastri ‘in a lot of pain’ after Ferrari strategy denies Italian GP victory

Oscar Piastri has admitted missing out on victory at the Italian Grand Prix was “very painful” after Ferrari’s shrewd strategic gamble sent Charles Leclerc to the top.

The McLaren driver passed team-mate Lando Norris at Turn Four on the opening lap and built a lead to secure his second Formula 1 victory.

After building up a lead in the middle stint of the 53-lap race, Piastri was asked by the team if he thought he could use his hard tyres until the end of the race. He pitted on lap 16, one lap behind Leclerc.

The Australian claimed he couldn’t do that and instead opted for new mediums, while Ferrari took the risk of running both Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on old hard tyres.

Piastri and Norris passed the Spaniard and despite quickly cutting into Leclerc’s lead, the Monegasque had enough of a lead to secure his second win of the season.

“It hurts. I’m not going to lie, it hurts a lot,” Piastri said.

“We did a lot of things right. There were a lot of question marks about the strategy before the race. From the position we were in with the tyres looking like that, a one-stop seemed like a very risky decision.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, 2nd position, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, 3rd position, in Parc Ferme at the end of the race

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

“In the end it (stopping once) was good. Very, very happy with the pace, with the race I managed to achieve… only, when you come second, it hurts.”

Asked if he thought he could have made the one-stop race work in the end, Piastri replied: “In hindsight yes, but after the race everyone is a legend and unfortunately we got it a little bit wrong, and I was a big part of that.”

“We had everything to lose by leading the race. Charles could try something else. He would finish third anyway. He made the right gamble.

“My left front was pretty gritty. We didn’t expect it to clear up, which it did. So yeah, painful.”

Norris had started from pole and hoped to significantly reduce Max Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ championship.

However, he had to settle for the final step on the podium and agreed with Piastri about McLaren’s shortcomings at Monza.

“I mean, we considered doing the whole race (one stop), but that wasn’t possible with the amount of graining I had,” Norris explained.

“It’s a tough one. We knew it was going to be tight, but with our car and some of the limitations we have, it wasn’t possible. We knew, we knew it could be a possibility.

“We are of course disappointed, but Ferrari did better, they had a better car and there is respect for that.”