Oscar Piastri has revealed that a brake-by-wire failure restricted his progress in the Miami Grand Prix, as he was forced to manage various issues throughout the race.
The race at the Miami International Autodrome ended in disappointment for the McLaren rookie – after being able to rise up the order during the opening laps on the Soft tyre, he was swallowed up by those around him after bolting on the hard compound and ended the race second from last.
Piastri revealed after the race that it was a failure with his brake-by-wire along with another failure at play that caused his lack of pace in his second stint.
But the Aussie driver was able to nurse the MCL60 across to the end of the race, joking that pre-season testing practice of his steering wheel controls helped him reach the checkered flag.
“Well, it worked on the first lap,” he said.
“I gained a few positions off the start but about three or four laps after the pit stop I had a brake-by-wire failure with some other failures. So that was why the pace was so terrible. After that, the brake pedal was about two metres long it felt like, amongst other things.
“It was sudden, hit the brakes one lap and the brake pedal just went to the floor. I’m not sure if it was just BBW or if we had some other issues as well going on so we need to understand what went wrong.”
As Piastri and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris qualified P19 and P16 respectively, the team opted for a more aggressive strategy for the opening stint to aid them in moving up the order. After Alpha Tauri’s Nyck de Vries collided with Norris at the first corner and Piastri’s later problems it meant that the pair couldn’t make up any positions during the race.
Piastri confirmed that McLaren’s strategy of starting on the soft tyre was “a calculated risk”.
“To be honest, we weren’t going to get into the points on pace today. Tried something different, didn’t really work. So yeah, challenging afternoon but we had to try something on the strategy.
“It was good [steering wheel] switch practice that’s for sure! I’m glad we did extensive work on that in testing it paid off today.”
