Oscar Piastri explains why he looks back on the Spa weekend in an overall positive light – Timo Glock believes the Australian has a bright future ahead of him
“I still take a lot of confidence from it,” Oscar Piastri sums up after the Formula 1 weekend at Spa 2023. The rookie retired in the race on the very first lap, but showed an extremely strong performance in Belgium up to then.
That started with second place in practice on Friday, followed by sixth place in qualifying and second place in both the shootout and sprint on Saturday. In all sessions, the McLaren driver finished ahead of his team-mate Lando Norris.
“I think our qualifying pace was very good, especially in these difficult conditions. I was very happy with my driving and my pace, and of course my first top three finish [in the sprint] was a big highlight,” he enthused.
In the race he collided with Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz in the first corner. But another top result would probably not have been possible on Sunday anyway, because it was dry there and the set-up of the McLaren did not suit the conditions.
Piastri can therefore get over his retirement after what had been a strong weekend up to that point. “I don’t know what would have been possible with our pace [in the race],” he shrugs and explains: “I’ll take the positives with me.”
And by that, the Australian means not only the race in Belgium, but his first six months as a Formula One driver as a whole. “It’s been a busy six months, much busier than any other six months in my life,” Piastri reports.
He therefore wants to enjoy the summer break now “to start again and go through what was good and what was bad. And hopefully we can attack in the second half of the season,” said the Australian, who is still waiting for his first real Formula One podium.
Glock says Piastri has a “great future “
But at least the sprint at Spa gave a foretaste of what could be expected from the 22-year-old in the future. Expert Timo Glock, for example, writes in his column for ‘Sky’ that Piastri put “an exclamation mark” on the weekend.
“Apart from the accident, he did a top job the whole weekend and impressed with his speed. For a rookie who drove in Formula 1 at Spa-Francorchamps for the first time, that was very impressive,” Glock thinks.
He explains: “You can see that in the fact that even on circuits where he has not yet driven a Formula 1 car, he manages to catch up with Lando Norris in a very short time. By qualifying at the latest, he’s on a par.”
“He does that consistently and really well. In the future, he will definitely be someone who will convince with talent and who can put Max Verstappen under pressure if he has the right opportunities,” the expert surmises.
