Oscar Piastri jokes about ‘oars’ as Miami GP rain threatens chaos

Oscar Piastri has joked he may need to fit oars to his McLaren, with heavy rain threatening to turn Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix into a lottery.

Sunday’s race will, however, start three hours earlier than originally scheduled, starting at 1pm local time [6pm UK] to avoid the heavier thunderstorms that are forecast.

Oscar Piastri jokes about oars amid Miami Grand Prix rain threat

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“This decision,” read the statement from the FIA, Formula One Management, and Miami Grand Prix, “has been taken to ensure the least amount of disruption to the race, and to ensure the maximum possible window to complete the Grand Prix in the best conditions and to prioritise the safety of drivers, fans, teams and staff.”

There is, however, still a 37 per cent chance of rain at 1pm.

Piastri will line up seventh on the grid, having qualified seven tenths behind pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli.

The Australian, who finished P2 behind his team-mate Lando Norris in Saturday’s Sprint, joked that his best plan of attack for Sunday’s 57-lap race is to find oars for his car.

“I think probably build some oars,” he told Sky F1.

“We’ll see what we get. If it’s wet, that’s going to throw a lot of spanners in the works. No one has really driven these cars in the rain, and no one really knows what they’re going to do.

“Hopefully we’re on the right side of that.”

Piastri is one of the few drivers who has some experience with the new cars in the wet, having driven his MCL40 during a wet tyre test for Pirelli earlier this year.

While he believes driving in the rain won’t be much different from racing last year’s car in the wet, the power unit side could shake things up.

“In terms of driving the car, it’s not going to be that different to what we had before,” he said.

“It’s just going to be what happens with the power unit, how you get power, where you get power, it’s in a computer’s hands. It’s just making sure that that does roughly what we expect.

“Obviously, the margin for error when it’s wet is significantly low.”

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However, his team-mate Norris has absolutely no experience of the new cars on a wet track.

“No, I have never driven this car in the rain,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media in Miami. “Some people have, so we’re at a disadvantage for the time being.

“I mean, it’s with more chaos, but it’s hard to know. It would be more just everything in the air, and let’s see what happens.

“But I think in a dry the pace is not bad. I just don’t think we have the pace of the cars ahead. Yes, I won this morning, and the pace looked strong, just because I had cleaner air. If I was behind, whoever starts in the front wins the race.”

Asked if he was apprehensive about his lack of wet running, the world champion replied: “Of course, it’s also a very different track for the people that have driven in the wet, but I think for all of us, it’s a different track, different conditions.

“I don’t know how wet it’s going to be, so it’s going to be a big challenge on race day for everyone to kind of perform, find the limit, and obviously you can’t afford to make any mistakes. So we’re kind of thrown in the deep end, but that’s what we’re here to do.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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