Oscar Piastri speaks on his F1 Belgian GP-wining move on Lando Norris, as the duo and Andrea Stella add on the battery question and strategy.
Already Norris was nervous about his chances at the start of F1 Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps, considering that it is easier for the pole-sitter to loose the lead to drivers behind. After the rain delay and a rolling start, Piastri made quick work when they got going finally.
Piastri stayed with Norris all through La Source to Eau Rouge and eventually cleared the Brit at Les Combes approach to secure not only the lead of F1 Belgian GP, but also the victory. The Brit noted about battery deployment, but the team informed that he had used it up at the re-start.
Post-race, team boss Stella noted that there was an anomaly for both Norris and Piastri at the start, but that was not the reason for the Brit to drop out. The Australian managed to stay on his tail and had the advantage of being the second car to go past the leader at ease.
Once the move was done, it fell on strategy for Norris. The lead car stopped before. There was the double-stack option, but the Brit would have lost time considering they were not too far apart. He decided to stay out and eventually take the hard tyre instead of medium.
It seemed like the strategy could have helped Norris to fight for the lead in the final few laps, but a slower stop coupled with few moments for the Brit ended the chance on the penultimate lap. On top of that, Piastri managed his tyres well despite his own mistakes at odd times.
Race, tricky –
Piastri: “It was a tough race. Difficult conditions at the start and then just trying to manage the Inters firstly because it was drying relatively quickly, but you can kill the Inters in a lap or two if you really want around here. So that was a bit tricky. And then I felt good on the Mediums for about five laps, and then when I could see that the Hard on Lando’s car was not worse than the Medium, 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. I had to manage a bit, but nothing special.”
Norris: “I don’t know. It’s hard. I didn’t have the best Turn 1, so hard to know how much that played a part. At the same time, Oscar came past me pretty easily. So even if I had a better Turn 1, his run and the slipstream probably still would have got me. Not too disappointed. Of course disappointed to finish second. When you saw Saturday and you saw today, then P1 didn’t look the best place to begin with. I also didn’t get the best Turn 1, so I need to look at what I could have done better.”
Stella: “Very, very, very high quality. We have two drivers which, to the standards that, even myself, in my career, I’ve been close to, driving with multiple world champions, I think Lando and Oscar are operating at that level. At the level of, deservedly, being in contention for the drivers’ world championship. I think this weekend, Oscar, if anything, the only inaccuracy here was yesterday in qualifying, where his laps weren’t perfect. At the same time, we have to say that after the sprint, he said, ‘yeah, I’m in pole position after the sprint quali, but maybe that’s not the right place to be in pole position’. And as a joke, after the qualifying yesterday, he said, ‘that was not my best lap in Q3, but perhaps this is the best place not to have the best lap in Q3’.
“So yeah, Oscar, even in the run, the long run, on medium tyres, I think he was able to control the degradation, and in fact, I think he scored his best lap, if I’m not wrong, at the second last – meaning that he was ultimately controlling his mirrors and the time to Lando. So overall, hats off to Oscar, great drive by Lando as well, and I would hope a P1, P2 for McLaren, which here in Spa, let me say, it’s particularly important because this is a circuit where we struggled in the previous years, and it has a particular meaning, I think from a performance and a technical point of view, that we are performing at this level in a circuit with these characteristics. So, well done to the entire team.”
Crucial move, battery scene –
Piastri: “I knew it was going to help me pretty significantly if I did. I had a good run out of Turn 1 and then tried to be as brave as I could 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 pretty important for trying to win the race today. I had a good restart in general. I was close into the last chicane, had an okay run out of the last chicane and then a good exit out of Turn 1.
“The move through Eau Rouge, I knew it was going to be by far my best opportunity to try and win the race. 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. When I watched the onboard back, it didn’t look quite as scary as it felt in the car. I knew that I had to be very committed to pull that off.”
Norris: “I need to look at it with the team. I don’t know [what happened exactly with the battery].”
Stella: “In reality, when it comes to the usage of the battery, at the restart, I understand that there was a slight anomaly, which actually happened on both sides. So, nothing that should have penalised Lando in particular compared to Oscar. Still checking the data, but this is the initial feedback I received. So, I think the overtaking ultimately came because it’s very difficult for the car that leads the pack to actually arrive first in corner five. It’s not impossible, but it does require to have a decent advantage as you cross the finish line, which was not the case for Lando already at the restart.”
Strategy, tyre –
Piastri: “We’d spoken about it before the race. It was quite a late decision to pit on the lap we did, but there’s risks either way. If I was in Lando’s position, I probably would have done the same thing. At that point, it seemed like the safest thing to do was go on the Medium, because the Hard is two steps harder here. You don’t know how it’s going to react in those conditions. If there’s a Safety Car, which often there is in those conditions, then you probably want a Medium, not a Hard. There are risks both ways, but ultimately I’m happy with what we did.”
Norris: “I wasn’t. Will said, do I want the Hard tyre? And I said yes. That was about it. I didn’t even know Oscar was on the Medium, to be honest with you. That didn’t influence my decision. I thought the Hard tyre would be a slightly better tyre to the end, a bit trickier to get warmed up and the opening laps maybe would be a little bit more of a struggle, which I think it was. The last few laps, I had the advantage in terms of grip, but it was not a great pit stop, I was the second one to stop. I think I lost eight, nine seconds just by being the second car to box. To catch Oscar from that gap is quite an achievement. I gave it a good shot, but just not close enough. I need to ask the team [about double-stacking].
“It’s tough because you’re going to lose quite a good chunk of time doing that as well. Considering the slick tyre was so much better by that point… like Oscar said, it was a late call for us to box on that lap. I think if we review it, we probably would have kicked ourselves a little bit for staying out as long as we did. I think there was enough evidence that we should have boxed early, but no one boxed that early. It was just Lewis that boxed one lap earlier than us. It was just more painful for me that Oscar got the good lap. I had to go one lap longer. That’s life.”
Stella: “In terms of tyres, there was no prescription, but in fairness, the medium is what we were talking about on the pit wall. Then Lando, based on the conditions of the track and considering how rapidly it was drying up, we thought that the hard tyre was possible, but medium was always our main choice. The choice was open, though. Yes, Lando had a couple of lock-ups in corner 1 and also a little oversteer in corner 9 that cost him time. I think this, overall, prevented us from having an interesting battle, possibly, at the end, but in fairness, even Oscar had a couple of times in corner 1 a little bit of a time loss. It’s very difficult when you push so much in these conditions, it’s very difficult to always drive within the limit of the grip and also it’s not easy to always keep the car on the racing line when you have the maximum grip, considering that away from that, you can lose it very rapidly because of the track being still a little damp.
“And yes, we did consider double stacking. At the same time, it was possible for Lando to deviate. He opted to deviate, which would have given him the possibility to go on hard tyres, which is what he decided to do. Actually, I thought at some stage that that could have been a very good move, but I have to say that Oscar managed a very solid and strong stint on the medium tyres, and even if Lando was, on average, a little bit faster, that was not enough to attack Oscar at the end. So double stacking, yes, it was considered, but there was the option to deviate, and it’s the option that Lando took.”
Dedication to grandfather –
Piastri: “It’s the first race outside of Australia that he’s come to. One of my sisters, in Spain, that was her first race outside of Australia, and that was a good weekend. Now my grandfather the same, so maybe I need to get my family members one by one for the rest of the races. I didn’t know. It seemed like the best person to dedicate it to. It’s a nice thing to do.”
Here’s re-start and move: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-belgian-grand-prix-piastri-overtakes-norris-for-the-lead-after-rain-delays-start.1838811395334764215
Here’s win for Oscar Piastri: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-belgian-grand-prix-piastri-wins-rain-delayed-race-ahead-of-teammate-norris.1838816664414579511
Here’s how F1 Belgian GP panned out
