How 'demanding' Oscar Piastri is raising McLaren's game

McLaren

How 'demanding' Piastri is raising McLaren's game

Piastri is making his mark at McLaren already with his exacting standards

Ewan Gale

Tuesday 14 February 2023 06:39 Updated: 23:32

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has revealed how Oscar Piastri's 'challenging' character can help raise the team's standards.

Piastri has joined McLaren for his rookie season to replace fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo, partnering Lando Norris in the newly-unveiled MCL60.

The former F2 champion comes into the sport with huge pressure given his exploits on track, as well as the storm that surrounded his switch from Alpine reserve duties to the Woking-based team.

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New team principal Stella, who has replaced Sauber CEO Andreas Seidl, has labelled Piastri as "demanding" and explained: "We gave him some audio files to listen to of previous races.

"The way he gets to the bottom of matters, even making questions - 'why did you guys do this here? You could have done that'.

"He challenges you. In a very polite and constructive way, but he doesn't take things superficially, he doesn't stop challenging just to please.

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"This is what we want. We want to be challenged.

"In this sense, he is a demanding guy who can help raise standards, by being almost constantly unhappy.

First impressions

"Even driving on the simulator, you let him drive and you can observe the way a driver challenges himself in terms of finding speed," added Stella.

"There are drivers with whom you have to guide the process step-by-step, while Oscar was pretty much able to go very close to the limit exploring his own resources.

"In this sense, he was impressive."