Was the Belgian Grand Prix Piastri's best F1 race yet?

"It wasn't my finest moment, but I don't think it really cost much in the scheme of things. I think it meant I probably would have just been stuck behind Lewis and George for another lap or two at the end."

Careening into his pitbox too quickly was arguably Oscar Piastri's sole mistake of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. When he overshot his marks, the impact gave his front jackman a jolt - but it appeared that he'd pre-empted this, squatting down slightly lower to ensure he could take the brunt of Piastri's stop.

When the replay of the incident was broadcast, and to a clip of the front jack operator given the necessary fuss after the impact, the live feed resumed - to the McLaren garage's mocking "awws" to the man at the front of Piastri's stop. The Australian also joined in with the japery post-race, in reply to a question asking if this was among his best races in F1.

"I would say so. I'm not sure my front jack man agrees, but no, I think it was a really strong race."

The best? Well, that's the real question. There are a few rounds in Piastri's 36-race repertoire that could be considered as his outright best performance: Qatar '23, Monaco '24, his first F1 win in Hungary, and now Spa. Does a run to third count for more than a maiden victory? As ever, there's always context to each...

Qatar was the moment when Piastri truly landed. He'd been through a great deal across the previous 12 months: the Alpine announcement that blindsided Piastri enough to issue his own statement stating he wouldn't drive for the team, its previous effort to farm him out to Williams for two years, and McLaren's subsequent victory at a Contracts Recognition Board hearing as it secured the Australian's services. Then came the Woking squad's distinctly unspectacular start to the 2023 season, which suddenly burst into life with the team's Austrian Grand Prix upgrade package...

Beating Norris to second in Qatar was the breakout performance for Piastri in F1

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

In getting those upgrades at Silverstone, Piastri finally had the tools to a) show what he could do, and b) disprove every unflattering opinion courted by his rejection of Alpine. As results picked up Piastri proved to be a blindingly fast and astute driver, only undone by his nascent tyre management skills relative to Lando Norris. This explained his drop-off at Silverstone last year, and at Suzuka albeit with a first F1 podium. But no such issues prevailed in Qatar.

And we're not even counting his Qatar sprint win here, in which he resisted Max Verstappen to collect McLaren's first win of any kind since 2021. Rather, the nature of the kerbs at the Losail circuit had produced consistently heavy damage to the tyres throughout the weekend and forced the FIA and Pirelli to countenance an upper limit of 18 laps for one set of tyres. This ensured that the drivers would stop at least three times during the race, effectively deleting the Piastri tyre management weakness, and ensured that the rookie driver could beat Norris fair and square in his first proper breakout weekend.

Monaco was another example of having Norris in his back pocket. It was generally considered that Charles Leclerc was going to dispel his Monte Carlo "curse" (note to reader: this writer does not believe in curses, other than his own existence) and leave the rest of the field navigating the barrier-lined streets to themselves.

Piastri appears to have an aloofness when in the car, something that serves him well, and it's something that Norris could certainly benefit from

Only Piastri stopped Leclerc from a leisurely Sunday drive around his home city-state, exerting the sort of pressure reminiscent of Nigel Mansell's efforts in 1992 as he filled Ayrton Senna's mirrors. That said, Piastri could not hold onto that level of pace in the final laps and had to be content with keeping Carlos Sainz contained, but it was nonetheless an excellent drive.

Although the team orders call that looked clumsy from the outside decided the Hungary race in Piastri's favour, it really needn't have taken the shine off the Melburnian's first 'proper' visit to the top step of the podium. The perceived tyre management weakness relative to Norris had been much improved, evidenced as Piastri luxuriated in the race lead and started to build his advantage over the chasing pack. His overall pace in the opening two stints was genuinely excellent, possessing the usual sort of relentlessness-cum-control one expects from a championship-level driver leading a race.

The problem was that Piastri's slip-ups - however minor - directly led to the radio bargaining phase that made the switcharound call a little more dicey. There was the Turn 11 exit where he ended up shipping about 2.5 seconds to Norris, and the post-stop gravel- brush on the exit of Turn 12 which slowed down his progress. But they're largely immaterial when you consider that it all comes down to this: if McLaren had pulled Piastri in first, we'd be talking about Hungary being his very best.

Spa was not a race win, nor was it even the runner-up spot like the other contenders in this impromptu game of Piastri's Picks - but pitlane grief aside, it was pretty much inch-perfect. At the top of this piece, Piastri reckoned that the incident generally cost him little: although it wiped away an overcut on Charles Leclerc and ensured that the move for third would have to be made on-track, Piastri reckons he'd have struggled to pass the leading Mercedes duo in either case.

Piastri kept his cool after McLaren orchestrated an undercut for Norris in Hungary before reversing the order

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Explaining the incident, Piastri reckoned that the grip level in the pitlane had changed to what he had become accustomed to, perhaps washed away in the Saturday rain that continued into the evening.

"I just went in a bit hot really. I felt like on Friday there was a lot of grip in the pit lane and I was kind of always undershooting the box," he explained in reply to Autosport's question about his tangle with the front jackman. "Even my first pitstop, I probably undershot it a little bit. I had to brake a little bit, with Lewis coming out, so maybe I was coming in a bit slow. But the second one clearly was a little bit overdone."

McLaren principal Andrea Stella disagreed slightly, feeling that the chance of closing in on the George Russell/Lewis Hamilton duel and mounting an assault would have been much more likely.

"Potentially, he would have just queued behind Hamilton, but he could have also been in condition to attack," he offered. "So I think this 1.5-2s loss at the pit stop ultimately proved to be relatively costly. Even because then you would have been behind Leclerc earlier with fresher tyres, which means you could have finalised the overtaking more easily. So a bit of a cascade."

The truth is, as ever, probably somewhere in between. What is clear, however, is that Piastri outclassed Norris in Belgium, as the Briton made an error at the start and never truly looked like catching back up throughout the rest of the grand prix.

It led Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko to suggest that the sardonic Australian was "mentally the stronger driver", although that's a slightly reductive way of looking at it. Piastri appears to have an aloofness when in the car, something that serves him well, and it's something that Norris could certainly benefit from in the second half of the season.

But equally, Piastri has less to lose. He's not really in this championship fight, being 110 points off Max Verstappen, and so he can drive with an untethered approach relative to his team-mate. He's free to keep growing, essentially, ready for the day when he'll be called upon to lead a championship fight. And, at this rate, he'll get there.

Piastri outshone Norris at Spa, and has demonstrated that he's becoming a real match for the Miami winner

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images