Oscar Piastri’s Race Engineer Is an Olympic Silver Medalist; Know Everything About Tom Stallard

Mahim Suhalka | 07/08/2024
Oscar Piastri’s Race Engineer Is an Olympic Silver Medalist; Know Everything About Tom Stallard

Oscar Piastri‘s race engineer Tom Stallard was once quite the athlete himself. At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he won a silver medal for Great Britain in rowing, in the men’s eight category.

Today, he is a race engineer at one of F1’s most iconic teams, and during a conversation with Piastri, the former Olympian reveals how he transitioned into F1.

Piastri asked Stallard about the similarities between rowing and F1 and it turned out that there was a crossover. “In rowing there’s an expression about being greater than some of the parts, and I think that that is really true in motorsport,” he said. 

“There’s only you in the car. But actually, the success comes from a really effective team that lands up being greater than potentially the individuals concerned, like the teamwork,” he added. 

Meet Oscar Piastri’s race engineer, Tom Stallard.
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Rowing, especially the category Stallard competed in, requires immense teamwork, even if it appears to be a singular effort.

Similarly, the teamwork aspect in F1 is often overlooked. But it has been proven time and time again that without a strong team, drivers cannot succeed in F1.

F1 veterans Stallard has worked with

Stallard is currently Piastri’s race engineer. But he has worked with some other experienced drivers in the past too.

He was assigned as Jenson Button‘s race engineer after the Briton moved to McLaren in 2010, and together they won eight races. Then, he became Daniel Ricciardo‘s race engineer and was in his ears when the honey badger won the 2021 Italian GP.

After Ricciardo left, Stallard joined hands with Piastri and it was the Melbourne-born driver who guided him to a 10th win as race-engineer. He won the Hungarian GP earlier this year, and with Piastri tipped to win more races in the coming months and years, there is a lot more they can achieve together.

 

Post Edited By: Somin Bhattacharjee
McLaren Oscar Piastri Tom Stallard

About the author

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Mahim Suhalka

Mahim Suhalka is an F1 journalist at the SportsRush. With an ever-growing love for the sport since 2019, he became a part of the industry two years ago and since then has written over 2200 pieces. A Lewis Hamilton fan through and through and with Hamilton's loyalties shifting to Ferrari, so will his. Apart from F1, he is a Football fanatic having played the sport and represented his state in various tournaments as he still stays in touch with the sport. Always a sports enthusiast Mahim is now translating his passion into words.

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