F1 News: McLaren Reveals Issue Behind Oscar Piastri's US Grand Prix Retirement
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explains the problem that caused Oscar Piastri to retire his car during the United States Grand Prix. The Australian driver had an impressive start as he made up four positions on the opening lap after starting 10th on the grid.
But things got out of hand after Esteban Ocon's A523 made contact with Piastri's McLaren MCL60, thus causing damage to the Papaya car, leading both drivers to retire after the incident.
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Speaking about what went wrong, Stella said:
"The impact with the front left wheel with one of the Alpine caused damage in the water system under the bodywork on the sidepod.
"This meant that we had a gradual loss of water pressure and at some stage we saw that temperatures were going out of control, pressure kept reducing, so we needed to retire the car."
Onboard footage from Ocon's cockpit clearly shows him losing control of his car due to the bumpy nature of the Circuit of the Americas as Piastri tried to pass by. But the loss of control caused his Alpine's front left wheel to come into contact with the McLaren's right-hand side bodywork.
Reflecting on the damage to his own car, Piastri told Sky Sports F1:
“It didn’t seem like a massive incident, just a bit of a touch.
"I think it’s broken one of the radiators so the engine was getting very hot. When the engine is overheating on lap ten, it’s not going to do another 45 laps.
"It seemed ok, I was surprised there was damage but it is what it is."
The Australian driver termed the contact as a racing incident since COTA's bumpy surface caused both cars to make contact. Speaking about Ocon's retirement, he said after the race:
"I didn't really think anything of it to be honest.
"I felt like I definitely had the right to be there, I don't think Esteban did anything untoward. Just we met in the middle and unfortunately, it's caused damage to both."
