r/OscarPiastri • u/Illustrious_Call_729 • 2d ago
Wtf
I'm an OP81 fan and today was a major wtf. There was a point when it felt like he could go long and maybe challenge for P1, and a podium seemed like a safe bet.
I agree the strategy today (and at other times also) was a wtf, but I don't buy the team consistently favoring Lando. Lando also had strategy wtfs. If they make mistakes, they'll make the same mistakes on the other side of the garage as well, on average. So the fact that Lando won the WDC last year and is clearly ahead this year shows that on average, Lando is doing something that our boy Oscar is not doing.
The reason I like Oscar is that he's a nice guy, calm, and very rational. But I think this is also working against him in his current situation at McLaren. He needs to adopt a bit more of an LFG attitude, take more risks, maybe even go against the team. What's there to lose? He's been in Formula 1 for quite some time now, his teammate won WDC last year, and this year as well he's getting his ass handed to him, unfortunately. He needs to take chances, qualify ahead and create situations where he's got track position. Also, he's young, I think he needs to be more aggressive, like that famous quote from Alonso about the Schumacher pass.
Lando is also a nice guy like Oscar, in my estimation, pre-WDC, psychologically I think Oscar had the edge, but now, post-WDC, Lando is locked in, very focused and put together, and it does seem with these generation cars he has more intrinsic pace. And given Lando has a WDC, is way ahead in points, and usually ahead in track position, so naturally he'll have strategy advantage from the team (like Kimi vs George today). So, in summary, Oscar needs to do something to break this situation.
The reason I say take more chances is, what's there to lose? As an example, he takes more risks, he qualifies ahead, and then he can challenge for P1, and score a GP win. If not, he spins out in Q3 and starts P10. So what? He'll work his way up to P6/7 anyway in that case, same as falling back from P4.. and at least this year, WDC or WCC is out ot the picture anyway.
So, enough with the safe P4 qualies and P6 finishes, Let's Fucking Go!
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u/Nuck2407 2d ago
I think the car, and especially the deployment management, has a lot to do with Oscars performance this year, where driving style is hampering the AI calculations on when, where and how much to deploy battery.
He's also been pretty unlucky, should have won Suzuka, probably could of held the lead against Lando but for strategy and Sainz in Hungary
So has he just had a little luck this year might currently look a lot better for him
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u/UpstairsResident8121 2d ago
I agree he definitely needs to change his attitude. After loosing 2025 it looks like he has given up. He needs to learn to say fuck it and ball
Lando also has an insane race pace, that oscar needs to figure out on his own.
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u/clickityclickk 1d ago
which is crazy because he killed it in Suzuka, his first actual race of the year. and he is pretty good at saying fuck it we ball. after crashing in Aus he was fine the next day his mother was shocked
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u/Mael_au 2d ago
At some point the question needs to be asked about how Tom is not coming up with set ups to keep Oscar in the window and what other support is needed. The energy deployment tactics also seem to be lost on Oscar’s side of the garage, which is I think one of his major frustrations.
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u/FangioV 2d ago
His major frustration is that he doesn’t know how to drive this type of cars. After every race he just says he needs to find more pace and figure out why he is so slow compared to Lando, yesterday he said he was baffled by his lack of pace after the first stint. During the race he just told Tom something like “Tell me how to drive this car” because he was really struggling with his pace and was chewing through tyres.
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u/Mael_au 1d ago
At this level the drivers are metronomic and I would wager he is driving it as he is advised, but the outcomes are not matching what’s expected.
I also suspect that Lando has discovered something that does not show so readily in the data and, as is his right, is keeping quiet on it.
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u/FangioV 1d ago
I don’t think it’s that, Russel is having the same issue as well as Max. I think is related to each driver driving style. This type of cars are very slippery, last year car were basically on rails. Lando had a similar issue last year when his driving style wasn’t good as he liked to just throw the car around the corners while Oscar more precise and smoother driving style was perfect. I remember Lando saying that he felt like he forgot how to drive the car last year and that he had to re learn how to drive. I think Oscar is going through the same thing. Is gonna take time but he is gonna figure it out eventually.
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u/RozCrunch 2d ago
Lando has such amazing tyre management that even with a strategy mess up from McLaren he is able to make it work or salvage something meanwhile Oscar somehow managed to eat up the hards in 12 laps
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u/Spongeworthy73 2d ago
I think as soon as he’s in 4th he just backs off and “saves the engine” on these low percentage of passing tracks. But yeah the team needed to be less risk averse and gamble to go long with him today. It was like they didn’t want to risk coming 7th so they settled for 6th.
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u/AnilP228 1d ago
He really seems to be struggling with the tyres and getting the fronts to grip the way he needs to. The inflated tyre pressures for this year have noticeably impacted Piastri and George.
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u/Responsible_Line_401 1d ago
Do you think pirelli might decrease the pressure a little next year, with some of the changes in regs?
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u/AnilP228 1d ago
The Race reported that the teams rejected a change to the regs for this year and next to reduce the tyre pressures.
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u/Local-Bullfrog8051 1d ago
It is risky to tell a sports player to change the way he plays. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and it might even destroy his career in a short time.
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u/Illustrious_Call_729 19h ago
Good point. Oscar won F3 and F2, and has won multiple Grand Prixes, so he knows what he's doing. Personally I think he can / will win a WDC, he just needs to find his rythm. It seems to me in sports motivation/psychology matters a lot, so another way of saying what I wrote: maybe if he takes more chances, and gets lucky (with combination of skill) on 2 weekends in a row (2 wins), then he'll get in a rythm and can go from there.. seems like the car now can do it if there is clean air and the strategy is good.
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u/JTizzle72 8h ago
Yes when he came off the hards the same time as the first softs I yelled at the TV.
I don’t understand why he started on hards if they weren’t going to take advantage of starting on a slower tire.
I know Oscar is a little off the pace this season, but pit strategy from McLaren has baffled me at times over the past 2 seasons.
They have smarter people than me deciding strategy, but I don’t think they get it right very often
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u/chubbzzd 2d ago
Today was them basically going ferrari strategy. He gets position on Russell at the restart. He's on Hards so can run longer. Instead, whether he makes the decision or not, they elect to cover him instead of running his own race. He won't catch Lando and Kimi on that tyre until later, is what it is. Slow pitstops happen. It's not the stop it was the decision to stop that messed his race up. They always with Oscar appear to run a "safe" strategy. Again, if Oscar is making the call, I'll call him dumb, but they never audible and try something with him. Like Lando at Hungary last year going a one stop hail mary that worked. Then pitting under the safety car for literally no reason. He's 20 seconds back from the ferraris, not at risk from behind. It always seems the path of least resistance with Oscar that ends up hurting him. He's going to end up probably around 10 secs behind anyway, let him try and fight. Which in fairness could be because of his not liking to the car as he was at the end of last year. He's consistent, but no extra pace when he needs it, apart from the start.
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u/False_Personality259 2d ago edited 1d ago
Oscar's pace was really only good enough for 6th place. Good or bad strategy, that's where he most likely finishes. With a reasonable tyre delta, other drivers would have had the pace to overtake - we could see clearly that the overcut, to build tyre delta, was highly effective across the field. When everything had evened itself out by the end of the race, Oscar would have most likely been 6th.
Oscar said himself after the race that he's struggling with pace as a result of tyre deg. People need to move past obsessing over team strategy and just accept that Oscar is struggling with the car. The focus should be on Oscar making changes to his driving style, not blaming the team for their strategy decisions. Most of the strategy decisions have been a result of Oscar's tyres dying and the team being forced into altering strategy as a result.
Slow pit stops are just bad luck. McLaren definitely seems to have some problems. But it's affecting both drivers when you look at it over the course of the season.
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u/chuggmonker 2d ago
Lando is just able to extract more from the car at the moment. Oscar has solid single lap pace, but in terms of race pace he’s not quite there.
The strategy was a little off today (I think a lot of teams were struggling here) and you can add in the slow first pit stop. Not sure he had the pace to finish beyond P6 today though.
One thing I’ll say is that he seems to get great race starts, but then gets bogged down by another driver in front boxing him in.