Zak Brown sets new target for 'VERY GOOD' Oscar Piastri after McLaren breakthrough

Zak Brown, McLaren — Photo: © LAT Images

Oscar Piastri

Brown sets new target for 'VERY GOOD' Piastri after McLaren breakthrough

Piastri scored his best F1 finish at Silverstone so Brown has raised the bar for the rookie

Joe Ellis

Saturday 22 July 2023 14:37

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Zak Brown has raised the bar for Oscar Piastri after the Australian recorded his best F1 result at the British GP.

The rookie came home fourth to the delight of the McLaren fans, of which there were thousands at Silverstone, but now the team's CEO wants to see him find another level again.

McLaren think they could go well at the Hungarian GP despite track characteristics not necessarily suiting the MCL60 and its latest raft of upgrades.

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But Brown and McLaren will judge Piastri compared to his team-mate Lando Norris for now, who has proven to be one of the very best in F1 year on year.

Brown: Don't make mistakes

Oscar Piastri was perhaps the only Australian with British support as he raced to fourth at the British GP

"But it was also good to see Oscar when he got the upgrades, perform on the same level as Lando," Brown said to Sky Sports.

“I think he [Piastri] is very good. He’s been right on the heels of Lando all year. I think his first year so far is on par with Lando’s first year in Formula 1.

"You kind of know when a driver is doing a good job. We didn’t really set a time delta, but it was push Lando. We’d like to see him outqualify Lando every once in a while, and I think that’ll come over the course of the year.

"Don’t make mistakes and learn. That’s what he’s doing. He’s doing everything that we’d hoped he would do. His progress over the weekend is very impressive. He’ll be off on Friday as he’s kind of learning either the track or the car.

"He never hits the panic button. He waits until Saturday to put in his lap time, and come Qualifying, he’s there pretty much every Qualifying session."