Oscar Piastri took blame for collision with Liam Lawson in F1 Brazil GP, as the duo along with Yuki Tsunoda reflect on an up and down race.
Things were looking goodish for Visa Cash App RB when Tsunoda was running third at the start of F1 Brazil GP. But then the Japanese driver was overtaken by Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and the team decided to pit him which undone the race, as it was soon red-flagged.
This gave a free stop to Ocon, Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, as Tsunoda dropped outside the Top 5. He was cleared by Charles Leclerc and even Piastri, but the penalty for the Australian helped the Japanese to end up seventh to score some crucial points.
“I think what we done, switching to extremes, that was good,” said Tsunoda to media. “Just the safety car and the red flag, that went very down for us. Had the red flag not come, I would have probably overtaken some cars and gained places and maybe be P1. It just didn’t come to us in the end. Definitely, it was good to score with both cars for the championship.
“If you lose concentration, you have to face the consequence and I enjoyed the last stint, fighting with Oscar, to be within 10s of him which helped in lot of points. I kept it clean and scored P7. It will be very hard [to regain P6], lets see what we can do in Las Vegas. We will do as much as we can, it is frustrating that they scored P2 and P3, they got a bit of luck there.
“It is pretty annoying but it is what it is. If we have a better car in the next three races, we will maximise it,” summed up Tsunoda, as teammate Lawson made it double points after finishing ninth, especially defending against Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez. It was a bittersweet double points considering Alpine ended up ahead of them in the standings.
Like Tsunoda, Lawson was firm on the pit stop as he didn’t have enough tyres. The conditions were tricky and he didn’t have hard feeling against Piastri and or Perez for the incidents they had. “Obviously, it was what could have been,” he said about the pit stop to media. “We lost a lot of time in the red flag, unlucky timing. Alpine made the right call by staying out.
“Honestly, I don’t think we would have made one more lap on the inter, it was so wet. So fairplay to the guys who stayed out, but obviously something I’ll learn from. Like initially, I probably jumped the gun and told them it was so wet, but I’ll learn from that going forward. I nearly crashed for probably 10 times, it was very sketchy but I think the most important thing is staying on track.
“It was a good fight [against Perez and Hamilton], both were trying to overtake me. It was fair. Obviously, we dropped a little at the end there, had good pace in the early stint, but couldn’t really use it,” summed up Lawson, as he and Piastri did have a chat about their collision, where the Australian accepted his mistake.
Outside the incident, Piastri just didn’t have enough legs to fight in the grand prix. They had a better first stint, but as the race progressed, their pace started to diminish. “[The race was] amongst the toughest, definitely,” he said. “It was a tough day from start to end. I think qualifying, partly a mistake, partly a bit of a problem, and when you put the two together, it is a big problem.
“We were still struggling with that a bit in the race but I think we were just slow. The first half of the race we seemed very quick, Lando was stuck behind George, I was stuck behind Liam. I got Liam out of the way not really in the way I intended, yeah, I think the second half of the race after the red flag we were just slow. I think both of us just struggled with pace and that was a pretty tough 30 laps.
“Top speed was not great but I don’t think that was our biggest problem. We were gaining in the corners with the downforce we had, clearly not enough. I think we need to understand better because in the first half of the race we looked very quick, but the second half both cars seemed to struggle a lot more, so need to understand why.
“I went for a move, I was stuck behind him for a long time, and didn’t really get far enough alongside. I spoke to him about it, he said he didn’t see me either, which in those conditions is fair enough, but it was clearly my mistake and the penalty was deserved, so just a tough day. Regarding Max passing me, it was tough, I just didn’t really have pace in the first part, he was pretty much the only who could overtake, I was struggling with the brakes all day.
“We had some problem in qualifying, that was the same in the race, so that certainly wasn’t helping things. One benefit for Max going out in Q2, he had bunch of new inters, that I think helped probably a little bit. But I think he was just fast, the car didn’t perform well in qualifying, but it certainly did in the race. He was just quick and he had a good race,” summed up Piastri.
He also noted about the wet tyres not performing well overall and that McLaren struggled overall in wet conditions. “I mean we were in a tough position, we were right at the pit entry, but to box and put new tyres on, I don’t think we expected it to rain as much as it did,” he said. “Then honestly the toughest part of the race was under the Safety Car trying to stay on track.
“I think it kind of exposed a bit of the issue we’re having with the wet tyre when everyone is begging for a red flag but is refusing to go on to the wet tyre because it’s so bad. So pretty dangerous situation having cars struggling to stay on track behind the Safety Car but it’s not really anything new so hopefully we can try and at least change it now.”
Here’s Oscar Piastri losing out to Max Verstappen: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024-sao-paulo-grand-prix-verstappen-passes-piastri-for-p7.1814732972004036221
Here’s Lando Norris on losing out
Here’s how F1 Brazil GP panned out
Here’s how F1 Brazil GP sprint panned out
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