Martin Brundle singles out rising F1 star for ‘getting involved in too many skirmishes’

Martin Brundle thinks Oscar Piastri needs to work harder to stay out of trouble more in F1 races, then he will become a “mighty” force to be reckoned with in the seasons to come.

Piastri has enjoyed a very promising start to life as a F1 driver, making a mockery of the ‘rookie’ tag by claiming two podium finishes and a Sprint win in Qatar in his first season in McLaren colours.

But leading Sky F1 pundit and analyst Martin Brundle thinks there is room for improvement after witnessing Piastri get involved in a collision with Lewis Hamilton during the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri catches Martin Brundle’s attention

“Oscar Piastri scored fastest lap and had a super-aggressive drive from his lowly grid position,” Brundle commented in his Sky F1 column.

“He perhaps gets involved in too many skirmishes, this time a racing incident with Hamilton, but when he adds better control and judgement to his speed given more experience, he’ll be mighty.”

Whilst on the subject on Las Vegas Grand Prix collisions, Brundle also mentioned the coming together between Max Verstappen and George Russell during the race – an incident that left Verstappen with a broken front wing and Russell with another frustrating tale to add to his disappointing F1 2023 season.

Brundle said: “There was contact aplenty even for the eventual winner Verstappen who made such an audacious move on George Russell that the Mercedes driver was only concentrating on controlling his own car and had no idea the Red Bull was on the inside.

“Russell would take a not-unreasonable five-second penalty which would spoil his great drive to fourth place and turn it into eighth, such was the proximity of the pack.

“A season full of promise but even more of frustration for George.”

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Piastri himself was typically nonplussed about the collision with Lewis Hamilton, believing the clash on Lap 16 didn’t really define the rest of his race.

“It was kind of just an awkward one,” Piastri told reporters after the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

“Neither of us had really committed to the corner that much, and then we both committed at the last minute and, you know, then I was trying to back out of it, we just ended up meeting in the middle, so, I had a puncture from that.

“I don’t think it really hurt our race that much in all honesty.

“It would have been interesting to see if a one-stop could have worked, from that point. We would have been a sitting duck like Gasly, pretty much.

“Yeah, a lot of things for a lot of people went wrong in that race and I think I was in the same boat.”

Piastri was running as high as fourth at one stage of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but F1’s rules stating at least two different tyre compounds must be used by each driver during the race ensured that the Aussie would drop down to P10 as the chequered flag waved.

Read next: The four clear areas F1 must address after first Las Vegas Grand Prix