Pastri’s step ahead in 2025 is not for the car, says Stella

Despite being only in his third year in the F1, Oscar Piastri is demonstrating that he can lead the World Cup with lead feet despite his youth and little experience and the director of the McLaren team, Andrea Stellahe believes that it is not simply due to the car you have.

Piastri reached F1 with a kind of cloud over his head. He replaced Daniel Ricciardo, the favorite of the fans, in McLaren, and his appointment for the team ended in the courts. Many wondered if they would live up to expectations.

More than 50 races later, those questions have been resolved and now leads the classification of the F1 with 16 points ahead of its rival in the championship and teammate Lando Norris.

Of course, Compared to 2024, when Piastri played a secondary role with respect to his partner Norris, the McLaren team has taken an impressive step forward this course. Instead of fighting to be among the top five, as he did at the beginning of last year, McLaren is being without any doubt the dominant force this season.

However, the director of the McLaren team, Andrea Stella, says that Piastri’s jump at the head of the platoon cannot be attributed solely to the new MCL39 and He highlighted his gum management.

“Seeing the way Oscar is dominating and managing the degradation of the tires at this time, there is no way that this improvement simply comes from the car,” Stella told Motorsport.com after Piestri’s victory in the Miami Grand Prix.

Previously, Piastri had had problems with the management of the tires in the race, but Stella now believes that it is an important aspect in which the Australian improved to increase his performance in the race.

“The only way to exploit the improvements we have made with the car is when the pilot understands in some way what to do with the car,” Stella said.

He added: “This has happened not by chance or because Oscar is being made a little older. This is because there has been a lot of work done by engineers in terms of understanding the driving style, how the tires are damaged, how you can avoid damaging the tires. And as I say, I think this is testimony of the quality of the work done by Oscar and the team around him.”

The McLaren has had no problems with its tires throughout the 2025 season, and both Piastri and Norris have managed to extend the life of their gums more than their rivals.

In Miami, Stella observed that the Australian was able to better endure his hard tires in the second stintwhile his teammate Lando Norris struggled with Max Verstappen and that harmed his compounds.

Because of this, Pastri consolidated his leadership and Norris was unable to reach him in the last turns.

“For Lando, he simply wasting too much time in the two situations with Verstappen and that avoided what could have been an interesting situation between our two pilots,” Stella added. “But I’m sure it will arrive in future races.”

As to Other differences between their two pilots, Stella ruled out the insinuations that Piastri was better advancing her rivals on track than Norrisdespite the fact that the Australian advanced Verstappen at the first change, while the British suffered more.

“I don’t think we should read the situations too much. I think that in terms of advances, precision and determination I do not see that there is any difference between our two pilots,” he said.