Why Oscar Piastri should not worry after ‘uncharacteristic’ Baku mistakes

Andrea Stella has defended Oscar Piastri after the championship leader crashed at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, saying even multi-championship-winning drivers such as Michael Schumacher had weekends that didn’t go their way.

Arriving in Baku with a 31-point lead over Land Norris in the standings, Piastri had an uncharacteristically error-strewn weekend around the street circuit.

‘Lots of learning for Oscar Piastri and no points’

He crashed during Saturday’s pole position shoot-out, which left him ninth on the grid as he failed to set a lap time. A hard whack against the wall from Norris negated most of the damage as the Briton qualified seventh quickest.

Piastri’s weekend, though, went from bad to worse at the start of the 51-lap grand prix when he made a small move off the line before the lights had gone out, hit anti-stall and fell to the very back of the field before he got going.

Trying to recover, he went wide – too wide – in overtaking Nico Hulkenberg, locked up and ploughed into the Turn 5 barrier. His race was over.

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But on a day that also didn’t go well for Norris, who was hampered by yet another slow pit stop, Piastri walked away from Baku still holding a 25-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship.

More to the point, says his team principal Stella, he learned some very valuable lessons.

“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 [quali], 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.”

He added: “I 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.”

Stella knows all about working with World Champions, from Schumacher to Fernando Alonso to Kimi Raikkonen.

And like Piastri in Baku, every one of them felt the disappointment of an off-weekend that just didn’t go their way.

That’s just the way it goes, he says.

“I’ve worked with multi-champion drivers,” Stella explained. “And in every season, even the most dominant, even by one of the best drivers in the history of F1, like Michael Schumacher, I have seen events like this.

“Events in which the most you take away is the learning.

“Things become, for some reasons like difficult, as soon as you misjudge the grip available, you get highly punished.

“So a one-off weekend in which things don’t go your way, and you ultimately have lots 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.”

Piastri’s DNF on Sunday brought his 34-race points-scoring streak to an abrupt conclusion.

The Australian racer, though, isn’t beating himself up over it, nor does he believe it was a sign that he’s feeling the pressure of the title race.

“It was two simple errors on my behalf,” he said. “There’s not been anything that different and I think 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.

“But this weekend’s felt like any other weekend, just unfortunately, there’s been far too many mistakes from start to finish. Every single session has been messy.”

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