McLaren bosses have heaped praise upon the start Oscar Piastri has made to life as a Formula 1 driver despite a debut to forget.
The 2021 Formula 2 champion will have hoped to show off his considerable talent at the Bahrain Grand Prix, having waited for a year for his shot in the top category. But he never got the chance, hampered by a less-than-competitive car and a reliability issue.
His qualifying ended at the first hurdle, setting the 18th fastest time. And he would have been starting the race on the back row had it not been for the deletion of Pierre Gasly's fastest lap during Q1 for a track limits violation.
And the race itself was over after just 13 laps as he was given the unwelcome distinction of being the first driver to retire from a race in the 2023 season. Despite that disappointment, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was keen to shower praise on Piastri for his efforts in his first couple of months as an F1 driver.
"What impresses us is his awareness of his opportunities while driving," said the Italian. "He could come back and make comments like, 'I think I braked a little too early in corner one, I didn't go on throttle early enough in four'. And then you look at the data, and it is exactly it.
"So, his awareness of the performance opportunities, that's the first point. And then he goes out for the second run, and he cashes in these opportunities. For me, this is a definition of talent. We see a lot of it. And we are also pleased with the improvement we have seen it day-by-day over the test.
"I think in terms of the opportunity, overall, F1 is a very, very competitive game, so he just has to go through his own trajectory. And I'm sure the final destination will be as one of the best drivers on the grid."
Technical director James Key is similarly thrilled with the help Piastri has been able to provide from a feedback perspective. He said: "He's impressed us tremendously, actually. I've worked with a lot of rookies in my time, and there's a real range of talents and attributes which each of them brings.
"Some are mentally just naturally quick, but they're not so good with their feedback. Some have both, some have excellent feedback, but need to do a bit of work on track and so on. Oscar's technical knowledge is excellent, his feel for the car is incredibly precise. He mirrors much of how Lando talks about the car. So that's really good for us.
"It's not as though you have a rookie driver in many respects, talking about the car, because his feeling is extremely precise and that's allowed us to pin down very early in winter testing exactly what we need to do for the further generation development work, to back up some of the comments we've had.
"He's very much a team player, he speaks very openly about his thoughts. And is very inclusive with that. So we've been really impressed. I think 'mature beyond his years' is maybe overused, but definitely that's the case with Oscar."
