Piastri's brilliance is both saving and causing problems for McLaren
OPINION: Oscar Piastri was McLaren’s hero in Baku, where the pre-event angst over team orders was quietened by Lando Norris’s qualifying misfortune. The Australian is hitting new personal heights in rapid time in Formula 1, and is part of the juggling act the team is grappling with in 2024
What a problem to have. In Oscar Piastri, McLaren has a driver capable of winning the hardest, best races of the current Formula 1 era – as took place at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
But its other driver remains its best hope of winning this season’s drivers’ title – with all the glory and emotion that accolade evokes.
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Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.
A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.
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