Steiner Dismisses Piastri's 'Sh*t' Azerbaijan GP as an Anomaly

Oscar Piastri's uncharacteristically challenging weekend in Azerbaijan has been chalked up as an isolated incident by former team boss Guenther Steiner, who believes the McLaren driver will quickly rebound. Piastri's Baku outing ended prematurely with a first-lap retirement after a jumped start, a drop to the back, and a slide into the wall.

Why it matters:

• This incident marked Piastri's first retirement since his rookie F1 season and offered a rare glimpse of vulnerability for a driver known for his composure.
• While he still leads the championship, his margin has shrunk to just 25 points over teammate Lando Norris, intensifying the title battle with seven races and three sprints remaining.

The Details:

• First Retirement: Azerbaijan ended Piastri's 44-race finishing streak, making him the only driver to have completed every racing lap of 2024 before this incident. This was only the fourth retirement of his 63-race career and his first solo crash out.
• Steiner's Perspective: Guenther Steiner, speaking on the Red Flags podcast, dismissed the incident, stating, “Hopefully he’s got it out of the system now. Hopefully it doesn’t make any more [mistakes]. But he was pretty cool afterwards. He said, you know, it was a shit weekend, they happen, you know.”
  • Steiner emphasized that even top drivers have off-days and that Piastri, with only one such weekend, can recover quickly.
• Weekend Complications: Piastri's Baku weekend was hampered from the start by reliability issues during Friday practice. He then nudged the barrier in Qualifying 3, relegating him to ninth on the grid, having already brushed a wall earlier.
  • Qualifying Impact: Steiner reasoned that Piastri's desire to make up ground after a difficult qualifying led to him trying too hard at the start and misjudging his braking, ultimately causing the crash. “I think what he learned out of it is, if you do something wrong, it’s no point to try and make it up by making more mistakes, by taking too much risk. But it all started in qualifying.”
• No Defensive Driving: Steiner rejected the notion that Piastri is driving defensively to protect his championship lead, which was 34 points after his Dutch Grand Prix win.
  • He believes Piastri is still on the attack and the Azerbaijan incident was simply a mistake rather than a sign of a conservative approach.

What's next:

• The F1 season now heads to Singapore, a circuit where Norris famously won last year and Piastri finished third. Notably, Max Verstappen has never won in Singapore, potentially offering an opportunity for McLaren to capitalize.
• Piastri's ability to bounce back immediately will be under scrutiny as the championship fight intensifies. His performance in Singapore will be crucial in demonstrating that Azerbaijan was indeed an isolated 'shit weekend'.
• The dynamic between Piastri and Norris, especially after their team orders at Monza, adds another layer of intrigue to the remaining races.