Andrea Stella has likened Oscar Piastri to world champions Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso in justifying his decision to re-sign the Aussie rising star early.
McLaren announced it had signed Piastri on a fresh contract to keep him at Woking until at least the end of 2026, effectively replacing the two-year deal he debuted on this season.
The decision comes off the back of an impressive rookie campaign during which the 22-year-old has often matched his more experienced teammate, Lando Norris, for pace and highlighted by his standout second place at the Belgian Grand Prix sprint in soaking-wet conditions.
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Piastri’s early races were so strong that McLaren CEO Zak Brown described him as world championship material just months into his debut.
Team principal Andrea Stella said it was clear almost immediately that Piastri was the long-term prospect the team had hoped for when signing him based solely on his junior championships.
“It is a new contract because it became very apparent for us that we wanted to secure this prospect and we wanted to realise the full extent of the collaboration,” he said.
“It came at the point in which it was very apparent for us that Oscar is the right driver for McLaren.
“This has been clear to us very early. The announcement comes now, but actually the agreement was found pretty early on because what we needed to assess became clear and apparent to us very soon.
“I’m happy to say that the same was on Oscar’s side. It was a recognised by both parties that this is the collaboration that should lead both parties — from a team point of view and from a driver point of view — into the future.”
Stella, who during his time at Ferrari engineered Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, said there were three clear parallels between the young Piastri and the greats of Formula 1.
“Obviously when McLaren so strongly wanted to sign Oscar we looked at the results in the junior categories,” he explained.
“But what happened in the early days of the collaboration with Oscar is that we could see that what he achieved in the junior categories had good reasons for that to happen.
“We could see this in the natural speed, which is related to the talent to some extent. We even saw it in the first day of the simulator in the way he was assessing his own performance, saying. ‘This is where I am. This is where I need to improve’. It was matching so well we what we could see from the data. That was quite impressive.
“That’s when I thought, ‘It’s just a gift’. His self-awareness in relation to speed, in relation to how to go and grab this speed opportunity — this became apparent then at the test and then race by race.”
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Norris, who obliterated Daniel Ricciardo during their truncated two seasons as teammates, acknowledged that Piastri was already fast enough to be pushing him to improve himself.
“He’s performed, he’s done everything he’s needed to and probably exceeded most people’s expectations from what he’s been able to achieve already this season,” Norris said.
“He’s pushed me a lot — it’s not a nice thing, it’s not what I want! — but he’s done a very good job.
“We’ve had a fun first half of the season, a lot of progress, and I think for him to be part of that progress and to hopefully continue that into next year, 2025 and 2026 for himself is something to really look forward to.”
The second element relates to Piastri’s attitude to self-improvement and honing his craft.
“These qualities have to do with being able to continuously improve,” Stella said.
“You may be as talented as I’m saying, but there’s I’m sure there are a lot of people that were talented but didn’t go anywhere because there was no attitude to continuous improvements.
“I think we have really good examples now on the grid of drivers that can keep being extremely competitive at ages that we didn’t think that will be obvious because of continuous improvements — just attitude to continuous improvements.
“In this sense I think this one is a similarity with Fernando.”
The third element is Piastri’s personality and his personal values, which Stella said were a perfect match for the team he’s trying to build as a new principal.
“For us it was important to make sure that the person that we keep on board is a person that not only fits our culture but will contribute to establishing the culture even more and potentially adding to the culture, adding to the values and the behaviours that make us become a team of mates,” he said.
“In this sense Oscar, from just a personal point of view, if he wasn’t a Formula 1 driver, I would appreciate him as a person.
“The values he brings into the sport and the values he brings into the collaboration with the team in this sense makes me think about Michael.
“Somebody who worked with Michael here in the paddock — he is at another team — said to me he was so capable of building families. It was definitely tough on track, but within the team, the spirit, the sense of unity was not short of being like a family.
“So I think I’m referring to natural talent attitude and culture and values. These three things became apparent to us relatively soon, and that’s why the conversations started soon.”
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Piastri has been notably calm and composed for an F1 rookie given the unusual circumstances of his debut. He started the season with a woefully uncompetitive car that needed a great deal of work to coax performance from before almost overnight having an upgraded machine capable of fighting for podiums.
The Melburnian has handled the transition smoothly, and it’s been his calmness under pressure that Stella most values about his character.
“There’s one attribute of his personality that we all appreciate and that when you are in a pressurised environment like Formula 1 becomes very important: he is a calm, considerate person,” he said.
“He doesn’t have nervous reactions. He doesn’t have unnecessary irritation. He doesn’t have tension in his comments.
“You know you can trust what he’s saying. He’s not adding speculatively anything because he needs to promote himself. He’s trustworthy and calm.
“To be honest, calmness is a quality I generally try to strengthen as much as possible throughout the team. There are already enough reasons to be tense for the competition itself; nobody should create additional [tension] just through behaviours or the way you speak to your colleagues or the way you report things emphasising.”
Stella said these translated into obvious leadership qualities that would stand McLaren in good stead as the Australian established himself as his career progressed.
These were on display in Singapore, where Piastri wasn’t deterred by not being afforded McLaren’s latest upgrade.
“Even if as a driver you always want to have the highest potential package … at no point during the Singapore weekend did we have any reference to any annoyance, any comment like, ‘I’m here a little slower but obviously the other one has the new parts’ — not even indirectly.
“This means that everyone listening, everyone looking at the person, gets something by example. That’s the fit with the culture.
“Leaders — and drivers are definitely leaders in a Formula 1 team — lead by example, and Oscar you can trust is going to do it even when he is at a disadvantage.”