{"id":907908,"date":"2026-09-27T23:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T23:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907908\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T23:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T23:34:12","slug":"oscar-piastri-error-that-cost-me-f1-azerbaijan-gp-podium-was-a-bit-weird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907908\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri: Error that cost me F1 Azerbaijan GP podium was “a bit weird”"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren<\/a> Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri<\/a> has labelled his late-race Azerbaijan Grand Prix mistake as \u201ca bit weird\u201d, after losing the podium in Baku.<\/p>\n

Piastri was running third following the second safety-car restart and came under pressure from Red Bull\u2019s Isack Hadjar<\/a> after being overtaken by Max Verstappen<\/a> at the first restart.<\/p>\n

Attempting to defend on the inside in Turn 1, the Australian had an enormous lock-up and went straight on, collapsing from third to 15th \u2013 the penultimate position in the bunched-up pack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to look, because it was a bit weird just locking up both fronts instantly like that,\u201d Piastri commented. \u201cI didn’t think I did anything spectacular. Obviously I was on a different line to what I normally would be, defending. So I don’t know if I was on a crown in the road or something, but it certainly was a surprise to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Max got ahead, I was never going to get back past, but it would have been interesting to see if I could keep Hadjar behind. To be honest, it probably would have been tough. It’s hard to tell on the medium because they were pretty heavily flat-spotted, but I didn’t feel anywhere near as good on the medium as I did on the soft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think potentially we could have been P4. One thing is saying \u2018we could have been\u2019, and one thing is where you actually finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Oscar <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Isack Hadjar, Red\u00a0Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Alex Pantling \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Piastri has notoriously been struggling all season with F1\u2019s 2026-spec machinery, but for once he outperformed team-mate Lando Norris<\/a> in Baku; the 25-year-old equalled his best qualifying result of the season with third place, and could have taken his first podium finish since Miami.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve been more comfortable, but I’ve been able to get more lap time out of the car,\u201d he explained. \u201cI’ve been able to understand which direction I need to go in with my driving especially.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from one moment in the race, I feel like it’s been a weekend much more at the level I expect from myself. From that side of things, it’s been much more encouraging. Just, obviously, it’s pretty painful to not have anything to show for it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what direction did Piastri need to go in with his driving, exactly?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe previous cars, especially in the race, you drove at 99%,\u201d he explained. \u201cYou had to look after the tyres a little bit, and driving at 99% was the fastest way to drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith these cars, it feels like you have to be at 101% all the time, and as soon as you can’t be, then you just haemorrhage lap time. That’s why I say it’s not necessarily been more comfortable this weekend, but I’ve been able to get to that 101% or 100% a bit easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I’ve definitely learned some interesting things this weekend to take forward, but it’s still a learning process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Kemal Sengul<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri has labelled his late-race Azerbaijan Grand Prix mistake as \u201ca bit weird\u201d,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,98125,98975,817,813,816,913,2333,476056,85],"class_list":["post-907908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-azerbaijan-gp","tag-baku-city-circuit","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mclaren","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-oscar-piastri-error-that-cost-me-f1-azerbaijan-gp-podium-was-a-bit-weird","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}