Splash and dash: How Piastri recreated Ricciardo's greatest race

F1

Oscar Piastri's masterful Spa-Francorchamps win was reminiscent of Daniel Ricciardo's finest F1 drive back in 2014, writes Mark Hughes

Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 2014 Belgian GP Spa-Francorchamps III

Ricciardo poured cold water on Rosberg's 2014 Spa fightback

Red Bull

Author

Mark Hughes

Oscar Piastri’s masterclass drive at Spa last weekend had a resonance with that of his countryman Daniel Ricciardo 11 years earlier. There’s a lot of recency bias in how Ricciardo is remembered, with his comeback at AlphaTauri in 2022-23 as he tried to put the career back on the rails it had fallen off at McLaren in 2021-22. As such it’s easy to forget just how formidable he was in his peak years. His 2014 victory was deeply impressive in how, after catching and passing team-mate Sebastian Vettel, he contained his pace as a faster car – Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes – rapidly caught him, but going just fast enough to ensure the faster car wouldn’t quite reach him before the end. Then, once it was clear he was safe with a lap to go, he produced a lap around 0.5sec faster, just to show what he’d had in hand.

Piastri of course was in the same car as his chasing team-mate Lando Norris last Sunday but with a much shorter-range tyre compound. So his challenge was actually very similar to that of Ricciardo’s in 2014. The extra lap it had taken to ready Norris’s hard tyres had left him 9sec behind as he completed his in-lap on worn intermediates as Piastri was making his out-lap on fresh medium-compound slicks. As they began that stint, Norris knew his C1 tyres would easily go the remaining 30 laps and so he could push to the maximum. Piastri knew his C3 mediums did not have a 30-lap range if he pushed them. But if he was forced to make a second stop, then Norris would be past and gone. His task defined itself; fast enough to not let a flat-out Norris gain an average of 0.3sec per lap on him, but slow enough to extend the tyres past their natural life. He managed it to perfection and on the penultimate lap, when it was clear Norris wasn’t going to catch him, Piastri knocked half-a-second off the pace he’d been constraining himself to.

Lewis Hamilton Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2014 Belgian GP Spa-Francorchamps

Moment of impact: Mercedes clash set up Rosberg/Ricciardo chase

Getty Images

Back in 2014 Ricciardo had been the beneficiary of a civil war at Mercedes, as Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided on the second lap fighting out the lead, Nico refusing to back out of a move at Les Combes which had not worked – “To prove a point.” His right-hand front wing endplate had punctured Hamilton’s left-rear tyre and the latter was effectively out as he limped back to the pits with the damaged tyre then destroying the bodywork. He was later retired from a lowly position.

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Although Rosberg’s wing had taken damage, it was still structurally intact as he led the race – but Ricciardo, having passed Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and team-mate Vettel in quick succession, was tight in his slipstream.

He assumed the lead as Mercedes brought Rosberg in for a new nose on the eighth lap. A later safety car wiped much of Rosberg’s deficit to Red Bull but when the race got going again he was three places and 6sec behind the Red Bull but in a much faster car. Except he couldn’t use its performance. Vettel’s trimmed-out Red Bull ahead of him was just too fast at the end of the straights for Rosberg’s fuller-winged Mercedes to be able to pass. Worse even than that, Rosberg then locked up, flat-spotted and was overtaken by the trimmed-out Williams of Valtteri Bottas! Despairing of making any progress, Mercedes brought Rosberg in early for his second tyre stop at around half-distance – this time putting him on the option tyre. On this he was devastatingly fast.

Vettel had been lapping in the 1min 55sec and Rosberg’s first flyer was a 1min 51.9sec. As the others ahead of him pitted, he emerged in second with 16 laps to go – 3.5sec behind Ricciardo. On the surface, a Rosberg win from there in by far the fastest car looked more than feasible; it looked inevitable.

Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 2014 II Belgian GP Spa-Francorchamps.jpg

‘Honey Badger’ was well-placed to pounce when Mercedes cars tripped up over each other

Red Bull

But his option tyres were by now finished after a very hard eight laps. He was now no quicker than Ricciardo who was on newer and harder tyres. Rosberg wasn’t going to win from there, as the gap remained at over 3sec, Daniel pushing just as hard as he dared.

So Mercedes decided upon an alternative: a third stop to get onto another fresh set of options to use the car’s pace. This, they calculated, would get him onto the Red Bull’s tail coming into the last lap… But Daniel was on his game. The Red Bull pitwall calculated that if he could lap consistently at 1min 53.4sec, Rosberg wouldn’t quite catch him.

The Mercedes exited its third stop with 10 laps to go, 24sec behind and lapping in the 1m 51s. Ricciardo’s sequence after being told to hold at 1min 53.4sec was as follows:

1min 53.4sec, 53.4sec, 53.4sec, 53.2sec, 53.4sec, 53.2sec, 53.2sec, 53.5sec, 53.5sec, 53.5sec.

Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 2014 Belgian GP Spa-Francorchamps

Celebrating a landmark win

Red Bull

Just perfect. Into the penultimate lap, the Mercedes was still 4.3sec behind. Rosberg wasn’t going to catch him from there – so Ricciardo freed himself from his constraints and reeled off a 1min 52.9sec on his final lap. His third victory of the season even kept him in with an outside chance of the championship. In the last 30 laps he pulled out 15sec over team-mate Vettel, yet was easier on his tyres.

“We knew he was good when we signed him,” said Christian Horner afterwards, “knew he was very fast. But in all honesty we didn’t realise he was this good – and his confidence is sky-high at the moment. It was an extraordinary drive.”

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