Follow usMcLaren team principal Andrea Stella compared world championship leader Oscar Piastri and Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher, backing the Australian to quickly recover from a rare off-weekend in Azerbaijan.
Piastri suffered his first retirement of the season in Baku, crashing in qualifying before repeating the mistake on the opening lap of the race. The costly weekend reduced his lead over teammate Lando Norris to 25 points, while Max Verstappen’s victory rekindled Red Bull’s hopes of mounting a late title challenge.
Despite the disappointment, Stella — who worked as Schumacher’s performance engineer at Ferrari from 2002 to 2006 — insisted that such setbacks are part of every champion’s journey.
“I’ve worked with multi-champion drivers and in every season, even the most dominant, even one of the best drivers in the history of Formula 1, like Michael Schumacher, I have seen events like this,” Stella said. “As soon as you misjudge the grip available, you get highly punished. But these are the weekends where the most you take away is the learning.”
Stella stressed that Piastri’s season-long consistency shouldn’t be overlooked, describing Baku as “a one-off” for a driver he called the most solid performer of 2025.
“Oscar comes out with no points and lots of learning,” Stella added. “I’ve already had a chat with him and his mind is fully functional, already processing what happened and looking forward to the next race.”
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