Piastri: Difficult to “work some magic” in Singapore race

Adam Cooper
22/09/2024

Oscar Piastri admits that it will be difficult to “work some magic” and come through the field in the Singapore GP after a crucial mistake in qualifying left him fifth on the grid.

The Australian was not as comfortable on Friday as McLaren team mate Lando Norris, but he reported that the car felt better from the start of FP3.

He topped Q2, but when it mattered in Q3 he had wheelspin late in his last lap, and it was enough to send the tyre temperatures up and make the final corners difficult.

“I think through practice it was a big struggle, to be honest,” he said when asked by formu1a.uno about his session.

“I just had no pace. Through qualifying, I felt quite comfortable. I was feeling much better with the car, and in Q2 I was strong, even Q3. But just both my laps were terrible.

“The last one was looking good, and a little bit quicker than what I managed in Q2, which would have put me well in the fight for pole.

“But I just had a bit of a moment towards the end of the lap. And with these tyres this weekend, if you have one little moment, it destroys your lap. So just very frustrating.”

Piastri said he hadn’t overworked the tyres before the error: “No, I think it was just that one moment. I felt like I had used them earlier in the lap.

“But not crazily, just out of 14, I had a massive amount of wheelspin, in 16/17 I nearly ended up in the wall, and all just from that one wheelspin moment, I think. So disappointing.”

Tyre management has been a crucial factor in Singapore, and especially in qualifying.

“It’s been very tough this weekend,” he said. It always is tough to manage the tyres, even over one lap, which is frustrating. But this weekend, it’s been another step on top of that, I would say.

“I think one of my laps in Q1 or Q2, you have one small moment early in the lap, and the rest of the lap is a disaster. So even if you have at it the end of the lap, it still turns into a disaster.

“So it’s difficult, it’s sometimes frustrating that in qualifying we can’t really push everything to the limit, because if you overstep it, you try and take one step forward, and you take three back.

“It’s not like it’s something new, and it’s not like it’s something different for me compared to everyone else. It’s the same for everybody. And I just haven’t done a good enough job today of respecting the tyres.”

Piastri admitted that he’d struggled to match Norris, especially on Friday.

“Yeah, we’ve had a few setup differences across the cars for the weekend,” he said. “We’ve sort of gradually come closer, and I’ve been feeling much more comfortable with it today. Even if FP3 the gap was big, I felt in a much better place.

“And through qualifying, honestly, I felt comfortable. It was just the execution of my lap was not good enough.

“So, yeah, it’s definitely been a much bigger catch up game compared to what I would have liked. But I felt like I was there when I needed to, and just didn’t do it.”

Piastri’s priority to is get ahead of the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who are ahead on the grid.

“We’ll try our best. The race pace should be good. It’s just obviously not the easiest track in the world to overtake. So we’ll see what we can do. But there’s not quite as many big braking zones as Baku here to work some magic. So I’ll see what I can do!” 

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