Steiner offers fresh perspective on Oscar Piastri ‘s**t’ Azerbaijan GP

An uncharacteristic weekend in Azerbaijan for Oscar Piastri has been dismissed as just that by former team boss Guenther Steiner.

Piastri was an opening lap retirement in Baku after he jumped the start, fell to the back of the pack, and then slid into the wall midway around the opening tour.

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It marked the Australian’s first retirement since his rookie season of F1 with teammate, and title rival, Lando Norris edging closer.

Piastri continues to lead the championship, though his margin now stands at just 25 points with seven races (and three sprints) remaining.

Having forged a reputation as being cool and calm under pressure, Azerbaijan hinted at the first signs of cracking from the 24-year-old.

“But hopefully he’s got it out of the system now,” Steiner told the Red Flags podcast. “Hopefully it doesn’t make any more [mistakes].

“But he was pretty cool afterwards. He said, you know, it was a shit weekend, they happen, you know.

“To all normal human beings, it happens. I had a lot of shit days, and you just get up again and go again.

“How should we speak about a lot of other drivers who had more than one shit weekend? I mean, Oscar had one shit weekend, and that’s it, you know. I think he can recover pretty quick from it; done and dusted.”

Azerbaijan marked the end of a 44-race finishing streak, Piastri having been the only driver to have completed every racing lap of 2024, the second longest in F1 history.

It was just the fourth retirement of his 63-race career, and the first time he’d crashed out solo.

“It’s only one weekend, so it’s all done, and now he starts fresh,” Steiner declared.

“Get it out of the system, boom, I go now again – he just wanted to watch the race from that position in that chair,” he added in jest. “That’s what he was dreaming of. It was a childhood dream of his, and that is how he did it!”

Piastri’s Baku weekend was compromised from the outset, with reliability gremlins curtailing his Friday practice running.

He then nosed into the barrier at the end of Qualifying 3, limiting him to only ninth on the grid, having brushed the wall earlier too.

“When you start off the weekend like he did in qualifying, with what he did I think at the start, obviously, he wanted a little bit more to make up as much as he can,” Steiner reasoned.

“Made a mistake again, and then just misjudged the braking because he wanted too much too quick.

“I think what he learned out of it is, if you do something wrong, it’s no point to try and make it up by making more mistakes, by taking too much risk.

“But it all started in qualifying.”

Steiner went on to suggest that it was too early for Piastri to start driving to protect his title advantage, which stood at 34 points following his win at the Dutch Grand Prix – a race Norris retired from.

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“I think it’s too early,” the Italian reasoned when asked if he’d noticed the McLaren driver racing differently given the title fight he’s embroiled in.

“I think you a little bit too optimistic. I don’t think he feels as secure as you would feel secure of him.

“He says there is only one, you know, like an engine going or something happening, and I’m back to square one.

“He wanted more, which wasn’t there, and made a mistake.

“I don’t think he’s driving now, as you could call it, defensively, I don’t think that happened yet. I think he went on the attack and just made a mistake – or he could, he maybe wanted to give the points back which Lando lost when the engine blew up, to be fair!”

Steiner’s remarks cut to the bone from the Italian Grand Prix, where a slow pit stop dropped second-placed Norris to third, behind his teammate.

However, the order came over the pit wall for the McLaren pair to swap positions, a request acquiesced by Piastri despite his teammate also being his nearest rival.

That enabled Norris to finish second to Verstappen in Monza, with the Red Bull driver again victorious in Baku.

He now sits 69 points adrift in the championship fight, having reduced that deficit by over 30 points in recent races.

F1 heads next to Singapore, where Norris was victorious 12 months ago, with Piastri third. It’s also a venue at which Verstappen has never won.

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