“Lost All the Progress”: Rampaging Daniel Ricciardo Leaves McLaren Heir Oscar Piastri in Two Minds Before Brazilian GP

Week after week, Formula 1 is visiting tracks completely foreign to Oscar Piastri. Week after week, the young Aussie has been impressing everyone. From securing his first podium in Suzuka to getting his first win in Qatar—albeit during the Sprint—Piastri has become a force to reckon with. As much as he’s liked the Sprints this season, the past couple of races haven’t really worked in Piastri’s favor. And despite a strong performance in the Brazilian GP Sprint, Piastri was a little at odds with himself.

While Piastri is getting used to F1 for the first time this year, his compatriot Daniel Ricciardo is having to adjust to the fast-paced environment once again after sitting out half the season. For the first time ever, we got to witness a Piastri-Ricciardo battle on track, and it didn’t disappoint. At least, not the spectators. Piastri would beg to differ.

Oscar Piastri had a challenging but “eventful” Sprint in Interlagos

Just like Piastri, even Interlagos rarely disappoints. The old-school track is a favorite among drivers and fans alike. Why? Because of the amazing racing the track allows. With this being Piastri’s first time at the track, he got a taste of everything Interlagos has to offer. Unpredictable weather conditions and a galore of overtakes. The changing weather in qualifying caught him out on Friday. He looked to make amend today but it didn’t really work out.

After qualifying in P10 for the Sprint, Piastri got a great start off the line, climbing up to P7. In the process, he got ahead of Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, and Yuki Tsunoda. But within a few turns, he ran wide and lost the places he gained. In trying to make them up, though, he had a great battle with Ricciardo and Sainz for the better part of the race. After an opportunistic move on Ricciardo midway through the race, his McLaren fell off in the final stages, allowing Ricciardo to take his place back. Even though Piastri lost out, he learned a lot. However, his expectations for tomorrow are still up in the air.

In a post-Sprint interview, he was asked how the race was. Piastri replied, “It was very eventful. I had a good start then tried to make it even better at Turn 4 and outdid myself a bit. So, lost all the progress I gained. Definitely eventful and a lot of things learned for tomorrow from a racing point of view, from a tires point of view.”

While he is confident about McLaren’s pace, there’s another factor he can’t do anything about. “I’m starting in the same position but the cars around me are quite different tomorrow. We’ll see what we can learn tonight and hopefully make tomorrow a bit more successful,” he concluded.

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Piastri may not be too pleased with no points after the Sprint, but he can be happy about the fact that he gave Ricciardo a run for his money. And it was enough to elicit an out-of-character outburst from the more experienced Aussie.

Piastri was a thorn in Ricciardo’s side

Before Piastri joined the party, it was just Ricciardo and Sainz going against each other. Ricciardo was getting DRS on the start-finish straight, aided by which he was overtaking Sainz into Turn 1. But then, Sainz was getting DRS in turn and was taking back that place from Ricciardo. The tussle went on for a while, and when Piastri joined it, the rookie overtook Ricciardo the first chance he got. In the closing stages of the race, though, Ricciardo reclaimed P9 and was right behind Sainz. Had it been for one more lap, he would’ve gotten past. Needless to say, he was disappointed.

After the race, his radio messages were quite x-rated. He said, “Sorry guys. Yep, it’s that f***ing DRS into turn two. You pass in one and you just get f***ed. It’s impossible. Anyway, I’ll shut up. Sorry guys.” After getting out of his car, he explained, “We lost a few laps behind Oscar, got him back, and then caught Carlos again. With a lap to go, we were right on his a***.”

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After an eventful Brazilian GP Sprint, do you think Oscar Piastri can make headway in the main race on Sunday?