‘Major failure’ restricts Piastri in Miami

The 2023 Miami Grand Prix will not be remembered fondly by Oscar Piastri, who had to battle an early “major failure” en route to 19th.

Despite getting a flying start, the Australian finished a lap down to record the lowest classified finish of his short Formula 1 career to complete a tough weekend for McLaren.

Having started proceedings in 12th in opening practice, things got tougher for the papaya cars as round 5 progressed and the temperatures soared.

Lando Norris and Piastri were both knocked out in Q1 on Saturday and showed little speed to secure grid positions 16 and 19 respectively.

Even with a flying start from the Aussie, climbing up five positions to 14th on the opening lap, it soon became clear more pain was on the way in the Grand Prix.

Being the only cars to start on Softs, both McLaren’s pitted early and could eventually only finish towards the back with Norris in 17th and Piastri 19th only ahead of Logan Sargeant’s Williams.

For Norris, he simply “did not have enough speed to battle anyone”.

But at least for Piastri his early-race charge was halted by a “major failure” which held him back for the remainder of a long 57-lap Grand Prix.

“I had a lot of issues on the car in the race,” Piastri said on F1.com.

“We had some kind of major failure six or seven laps in on the brake by wire and energy recovery or something like that, so I was managing a lot of issues.

“I had a really good lap one which was the highlight of the weekend I think. But it was a frustrating afternoon trying to drive around the issues.”

The disappointing performance will be a major worry at McLaren headquarters with the upgraded MCL60 believed to have provided the boost required to be challenging for points.

However, the pace disappeared in the Florida heat and has left all in papaya colours scratching their heads.

Piastri’s previous low point was the Bahrain Grand Prix where electrical dramas ended his debut race after 13 laps.

He was able to finish the next three races at Saudi Arabia, Australia and Azerbaijan with a lot more promising pace between 15th and eighth, but Miami has been a major step backwards.

Despite the painful weekend, Piastri said morale at the McLaren Technology Centre is still high as they look to unlock speed in the fortnight before the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

“It has been a tough weekend, but we are still very motivated to get the car further to the front,” the Aussie reiterated.

“I think Baku was a very different weekend to this one where we were a lot faster, so we need to understand why that was good relative to where we were here.

“Obviously the reliability issues we need to get on top of.

“But I think the mood in the team is still very good because we have a lot of races left this year to improve our performances and achieve our goals.”

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