Piastri's Baku win shows he's an F1 champion in the making

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Oscar Piastri described Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix as the "most stressful afternoon" of his life, but it will likely be remembered as the defining moment of his early McLaren career. He found the perfect balance of aggression and precision to defeat Charles Leclerc -- an opponent who is arguably the fastest driver ever to thread a Formula 1 car between the unforgiving barriers of the Baku street circuit.

Although his Lap 20 overtake on Leclerc was the key to victory, his defence of the lead for the following 31 laps was no less impressive. Any stress that was building in the 23-year-old's cockpit during that time wasn't visible to the watching world as he ran his McLaren within millimetres of the walls and held off every advance Leclerc attempted.

Prior to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, there was little doubt that Piastri had the potential to pull off such a performance, but after the messy circumstances of his maiden win in Hungary (where McLaren's pit strategy made for an awkward team order), Sunday's awe-inspiring drive seemed like a far more fitting way for the Australian to prove his mettle.

Help from Norris

The main story surrounding McLaren ahead of the weekend was the team's decision to give priority to Lando Norris in racing situations involving the two drivers. Piastri accepted the position as de facto No. 2 driver during Thursday's media day but knew one way he could override any awkward team radio calls was by getting as many cars between him and Norris as possible. That proved a lot easier than expected when an unfortunately timed yellow flag in qualifying forced Norris to abort his Q1 lap and saw him miss the cut for Q2.

With Norris starting from 15th on the grid, McLaren was caught between wanting a bit of Baku chaos to help him up the order but not enough to unsettle Piastri's very real chances of victory. Remarkably it got both.

There was a twist of irony along the way, however, as Norris ended up helping Piastri rather than the other way round. Red Bull's Sergio Pérez pitted from fourth place relatively early on Lap 13, giving him the performance advantage of fresh tyres to undercut Piastri.

As Pérez's tyres came up to temperature and Piastri stayed out to try to match the strategy of Leclerc, there was a very real chance the performance of the Red Bull's fresh rubber would see him take second place from the McLaren. In pitting early, though, Pérez emerged on the track behind Norris, who was running an alternative strategy and yet to pit, and on Lap 15 the McLaren driver was told to slow the Red Bull intentionally to allow Piastri more time to change tyres and emerge in front.

"That message was because Pérez was undercutting," McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said after the race. "Effectively, without Lando's help, Pérez would have pitted ahead of Oscar and the race would have unfolded in a completely different way, so I think 50% of Oscar's victory today was shared with Lando.

"It just shows we are approaching racing as one team, and we had conversations before the weekend where we would bias one way or the other, but for us we approach every weekend ... trying to maximise the result for the team. If one driver needs help, we will do it and the other driver will do it."

What's more, with Piastri pitting one lap before Leclerc, he benefitted from his own undercut on the Ferrari. When Leclerc came out of the pits, his mirrors were full of McLaren.

Acting on instinct

Prior to the pit stops, Leclerc's lead looked comfortable as he opened up a six-second advantage over Piastri. The McLaren driver was struggling with his tyres towards the end of the stint and his attempts to keep up with Leclerc early in the race were the likely culprit for the rapidly degrading rubber on all four corners of his car.

At the start of his second stint, Piastri's race engineer, Tom Stallard, told him not to make the same mistake again and play the long game. Piastri didn't listen.

"I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer because I basically tried to attack Charles in the first stint and completely cooked my tyres," Piastri explained. "So my engineer came on the radio and said, 'Let's not do that again,' and I completely ignored him the next lap and sent it down the inside [of Leclerc].

"I think at that point, I felt like trying to stay back and wait for Charles to [experience tyre] deg was never going to happen. I thought that was just going to secure us P2.

"So, yeah, I had a similar opportunity in the first stint. I felt like on Lap 2 or 3, I was, I think, just within DRS, but didn't fully capitalise on that opportunity. And I got to the end of the straight thinking, 'If I had have done a couple of things a bit differently here, I maybe had a chance.' So when I had a similar opportunity after the pit stop, I had to take it. And yeah, I wouldn't be sat here [with the win] without that."

It was that killer instinct to go against his engineer's judgement and pull off a high-risk overtake that defined Piastri's win. It's a trait that is increasingly present in his driving, and one that is present among so many of F1's greats.

"If I didn't take that opportunity then I was never going to have another one I think," Piastri said. "I mean, credit to Charles, he was incredibly fair. I think maybe he thought I was going to sail on into the run-off, but I was pleasantly surprised that I actually made the corner.

"It was a high-risk, high-commitment move, but that's what I needed to do to try and win the race because I wasn't really going to be that keen to finish second. So I had to try."

Watching from the McLaren pit wall, Stella was hugely impressed by the overtake.

"When I watched the move live and I saw him going to the inside, my instinct said he is going to go long," Stella said after the race. "But that's why I want to emphasise the precision Oscar showed in the execution on the inside apex kerb in corner one. So, yes, I was surprised by the move, but Oscar is always surprising us with his talent and ability."