Race engineers, being the one constant reassuring voice of guidance in the ears of F1 drivers, more often than not, develop a close bond with them. Each of them has a different way of dealing with their respective driver, and Tom Stallard for one, likes to let Oscar Piastri fend for himself.
Stallard, in the recent episode of the F1 Nation podcast, spoke about his approach with the McLaren star driver during races. The former Olympic rower admitted that he does not always say the right things to Piastri.
He believes in the approach of letting drivers figure out how they can drive better themselves, as it yields better results.
“My job isn’t to be able to drive the car,” Stallard stated. “It is to explain to Oscar how to drive the car. And a lot of that teaching process isn’t actually about explaining to Oscar how to drive the car.”
“It’s about creating a situation where Oscar figures out for himself ‘how to drive the car’,” he added. “…They focus too much on being right. And the reality is that very often, the best way to teach something is to deliberately be wrong.”
Piastri heads to Austin P4 in the standings, having claimed his maiden career win this season and a set of strong race finishes #F1 pic.twitter.com/86ZyryxYkl
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 16, 2024
Stallard continued that when Piastri is wrong, it helps him figure the right approach out himself. In doing so, he learns new things that become ingrained in him.
The 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist—who has turned out to be Piastri’s teacher too—then explained how Lando Norris has also played a crucial role in helping the Melbourne-born driver become a better racing driver.
Stallard pushed Piastri with Norris comparisons
Stallard felt that one of the best ways to help Piastri better his lap times would be to compare them to Norris’. He often looked at data that compared Piastri’s performance at a particular part of the circuit to his teammate’s and analyzed it to find out where he was lacking.
The results were likely visible on the track, as Piastri—without a doubt—improved himself tenfold as the season progressed. In the early stages, he was far off Norris but fought back to be just 42 points behind the Bristol-born driver with six race weekends remaining.
However, Stallard believes that Piastri cannot always rely on receiving data from Norris. According to him, Piastri must develop his own strategy to optimize lap times, which includes the speed at which he tackles corners, braking as late as possible, and other critical factors.
