24/09/2025
NEWS STORY
Taking full responsibility for his Baku disaster, though unable to fully explain it, Oscar Piastri insists the championship still has a long way to go.
Caught out by a gust of wind in qualifying was one thing, but come the race the Australian jumped the start, losing a load of positions in the process, then crashed just a few corners later.
"Certainly not my finest at the moment," he subsequently told reporters, "silly, simple error," he added.
"I mean the crash... I think just ultimately I misjudged the grip level, I didn't anticipate the dirty air in the way I should have, and yeah, clearly went into the corner way too hot and that was that.
"So, you know, I'm certainly not blaming it on anything other than myself," he insisted. "Just didn't make the judgement calls that I needed to at the right time and that's obviously just part of it."
Asked if he felt the entire weekend had been one of those weekends drivers has from time to time, he said: "More or less. I mean, Friday was a tough day. I think Saturday, the potential was very good.
"You know, I had a lot of sequences or sectors that were incredibly strong and just never got it all together.
"Obviously, qualifying yesterday was what it was, and then today, you know, just more silly mistakes... Yes, it was certainly a messy weekend for sure. I would be more concerned if I was slow and trying to make up for it that way and having these errors because of that.
"The fact is that they're just simple lapses in judgement. It's obviously not a position I want to be in, or put especially the mechanics in, because it's been a rough weekend for them. But, you know, if I'm trying to find a silver lining, then I suppose I have that."
In terms of the championship, his teammate was unable to take advantage, finishing the race in seventh and only taking 6 points out of the Australian's lead.
"That, I guess, is what it is," said Piastri. "I'm not too concerned about that. I think, for me, I'm solely focused on myself and what I can do to improve. There's still a long way to go and, you know, if you have good or bad weekends, the championship's far from over. So, that's one thing."
In a subsequent interview he said: "You're never going to feel amazing after a weekend like this, but ultimately I felt like the pace has still been good this weekend. It's rare that I have so many executional errors, so I'm very much focused on putting that behind me.
"I would be much more concerned if these errors were because I was trying to make up time or do things like that. I think there should be... obviously they were costly errors, but things that can be very easily rectified.
"There's not been anything that different this weekend," he insisted. "It depends how you want to look at that. For me, if I felt like I was in a completely different headspace, then it's easier to blame it on that... and also a problem to rectify, I guess.
"But this weekend's felt like any other weekend, just unfortunately there's been far too many mistakes from start to finish."
Team boss, Andrea Stella, was quick to defend his driver.
"I have worked with multi-champion drivers," said the Italian, "and in a season, every season, even the most dominant, even by one of the best drivers in the history of Formula 1, like Michael Schumacher, I have seen events like this. Events in which the most you take away is the learning, because things become, for some reasons, difficult, and as soon as you misjudge the grip available, you get highly punished.
"So, a one-off weekend in which things don't go his way, he added. "It is no surprise, no exception that we should not be worried about it, because this has happened to pretty much all champions, even the ones with the best track record."
If nothing else, Stella believes Piastri leaves Baku having learned a valuable lesson.
"He comes out with no points and lots of learning," he said. "We've already had a chat and his mind is already fully functional, processing, he's already into thinking, 'that's what I've learned. I look forward to the next one'.
"Also we said with Oscar that today, even without issues, it's not like there were many points available, starting in ninth place," he added.
I think one of the strongest features of Oscar is how rapidly he learns, how rapidly he improves and how he can come back stronger," said the Italian. "That's why he's been so successful in every category. I think that's exactly what will happen in his Formula 1 career and we will see it in the remainder of the season."
The one bright spot for the Australian is that the 5s penalty he received for jumping the start will not mean a grid drop in Singapore. A new rule agreed this year states that: "In cases where there is a single five-second penalty which a driver is unable to serve due to retirement, the stewards will not convert that into a grid penalty for a subsequent race. However, if there is more than one penalty, the stewards may convert the 5s and other penalties into a grid penalty."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Baku here.