Oscar Piastri took blame for silly errors made throughout F1 Azerbaijan GP weekend, as Andrea Stella backs his driver to return well with focus.
It just wasn’t the weekend that McLaren’s Piastri wanted in F1 Azerbaijan GP. From practice onward, he was sliding a lot and had barrier brush often while finding the limit. It eventually led to a crash in Q3 to start ninth after the team changed his chassis from Saturday to Sunday.
He then jumped the start and dropped to the back of the field. While trying to get through the cars, he slid into the barrier at Turn 5 due to lack of grip after misjudgement. He took blame for the silly executional errors made on his side, which has been rare throughout the 2025 F1 season.
“Just a misjudgment on the lights, I guess trying to anticipate it too much,” said Piastri to media. “A simple error, and then went into anti-stall, and it went downhill from there. Just simple error. Just locked by myself [for Turn 5 incident]. I think just ultimately misjudging the grip level.
“Probably a lot of that’s from dirty air. I know better than that to expect the lack of grip. So I’m not blaming it on anything else. It was two simple errors on my behalf that caused it all,” summed up Piastri. He had time to reflect at the side of the track from where he watched part of the grand prix.
He made it back before the end to speak with the media, where he felt the whole weekend was messy. But he didn’t wish to blame it on anyone else but himself. Fortunately for him, he lost only handful of points to Lando Norris in the F1 title battle, with the gap now 25 points.
“You’re never going to feel amazing after a weekend like this, but ultimately I felt like the pace has still been good this weekend,” continued Piastri. “I think it is rare that I have so many executional errors. I am very much focused on putting that behind me. I would be much more concerned if these errors were because I was trying to make up time or do things like that.
“So they should obviously be costly errors, but things that can be very, very easily rectified. No, there’s not been anything that different, and I think for me that’s depends on how you want to look at that, I guess. For me, if I felt like I was in a completely different headspace, then it’s kind of easier to blame it on that and also a problem to rectify, I guess.
“This weekend felt like any other weekend. Unfortunately, there have been far too many mistakes from start to finish. Every single session has been messy, yeah, just trying to clean that up is the important thing for the future. I’m just trying to bounce back from this weekend and put in the best performances that I can, and I know that if I get back to where I know I can be, then I’ll be more than OK. That’s what I’m going to focus my energy on,” summed up Piastri.
Team boss Stella backed his driver, naturally. He stressed on the fact that how Piastri has been good all-through the 2025 F1 season and that one bad weekend will not define his whole year. He concurred with the Australian on misjudgement whether at the start and or the corner he crashed.
Stella focused on the learning aspect for Piastri, especially since this was his first non-scoring weekend in 34 races. The last time he didn’t score in a grand prix was the 2024 Miami GP, but he scored in sprint that weekend. And so, the last time of total non-score happened way back in 2023 Brazil GP.
“I was saying before that these errors that we’ve seen on Oscar’s side, they are definitely uncharacteristic,” started Stella. “I think Oscar has been the most solid driver in the 2025 campaign so far. For what I could see, even with multi-champion drivers, sometimes you have a weekend in which it’s all about learning. I think Oscar concentrated some learning opportunities in this weekend, despite his will. The start, I think it’s just an excess of eagerness.
“I’m sure we have seen this now and we won’t see this anymore. In terms of the lock-up, similar to yesterday, he just misjudged the level of grip available. Perhaps this was compounded with a slow start, with a false start. We don’t know yet. It’s not relevant really. I think one of the strongest features of Oscar is how rapidly he learns, how rapidly he improves and how he can come back stronger.
“That’s why he’s been so successful in every category. I think that’s exactly what will happen in his Formula 1 career and we will see it in the remainder of the season. This was not a good day for both drivers, for obvious reasons, because even if perhaps this was not a weekend in which even maximising things we could have beaten Max, perhaps we could not, but certainly there was more in the car and there was a possibility to fight for podiums for both Oscar and for Lando.
“For Oscar, he comes out with no points and lots of learning. And I’ve already had a chat with Oscar and his mind is already fully functional, processing, he’s already into… that’s what I’ve learned. I look forward to the next one. And also we said with Oscar that today, even without issues, it’s not like there were many points available, starting P9. So, lots of learning for Oscar and no points,” summed up Stella.
The Italian dismissed the ‘pressure on Piastri’ notion. He doesn’t see it that way, that he is now feeling the pressure of the F1 title on his head. He reiterated that this is most likely a one-off scenario. “No pressure, not at all, because I have…I don’t remember, I was talking to one of your colleagues, but I’ve worked with multi-champion drivers, and in a season, every season, even the most dominant, even by one of the best drivers in the history of Formula 1, like Michael Schumacher, I have seen events like this,” said Stella.
“Events in which the most you take away is the learning, because things become, for some reasons, difficult, and as soon as you misjudge the grip available, you get highly punished. So, a one-off for what has been probably the most solid driver in this season and I think, it concludes a streak of good number of races that Oscar has finished [in points].
“But just to say how solid, consistent he’s been so far. So, a one-off weekend in which things don’t go your way, and you ultimately have a loss to review, is no surprise, no exception that we should be worried about, because this has happened to pretty much all champions, even the ones with the best track record,” summed up Stella.
Here’s slow start for Oscar Piastri: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-azerbaijan-grand-prix-verstappen-leads-on-the-race-start-as-piastri-drops-to-last.1843871645009390099
Here’s crash of Oscar Piastri: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-azerbaijan-grand-prix-piastri-crashes-out-on-lap-1-in-baku.1843872266256009522
Here’s how F1 Azerbaijan GP panned out