Oscar Piastri's shocking health problem at Baku F1 Grand Prix revealed
Oscar Piastri’s shocking health problems at Baku Grand Prix revealed: Aussie young gun lost 3kg and only ate four pieces of toast over the entire race weekend
- Oscar Piastri raced with stomach bug
- Aussie shed 3 kilograms in weight
- Piastri finished in 11th position
Oscar Piastri had to live off four pieces of toast all weekend, shed three kilograms in weight with a stomach bug, and was utterly luckless on the track over several gruelling, empty-handed days in Baku.
But Australia’s Formula One rookie was still left being hailed for his battling effort by his McLaren team after he somehow managed to still end up smiling after finishing 11th, just outside the points, in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The debilitating bug had, by all accounts, left the 22-year-old struggling so badly his manager Mark Webber reported Piastri had lost three kilos.
Yet the young driver earned high praise from his British team as he fought on in a cramped cockpit to try to get among the top-10 – and the points – on the Baku street circuit, only to be sabotaged several times by ill fortune.
‘Fighting spirit shown all weekend, despite being ill. Proud of your effort, @OscarPiastri (and the Doc)!’ McLaren declared on their official Twitter site.
Oscar Piastri had food poisoning over the weekend in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix that saw him drop a drastic amount of weight
But Australia’s Formula One rookie was still left being hailed for his battling effort by his McLaren team after he somehow managed to still end up smiling after finishing 11th, just outside the points
That came after race engineer Tom Stallard told Piastri over the car radio on Saturday his 10th place finish in the sprint was ‘pretty bloody impressive … given everything else that’s been going on this weekend’.
Talking to reporters after Sunday’s race, Piastri said: ‘Through the race, the illness didn’t impact me too much but I’m a lot lighter than I was at the start of the weekend.
‘Today’s probably been the best I’ve felt all weekend but that isn’t saying much. It’s been very difficult, physically. Especially (the sprint Saturday) was pretty rough.
‘I’ve had about four pieces of toast for the whole weekend, so I need to get some food back in me before (the next grand prix in) Miami.’
Piastri was unlucky from the start on Sunday.
He was hit by Alex Albon’s Williams as the field jockeyed for position on the tight second turn, and quickly dropped from 10th to 13th.
He then had a slow pit stop, which was to prove pretty ill-timed coming just a couple of laps before the safety car was deployed after Nyck de Vries hit a wall in his AlphaTauri.
Talking to reporters after Sunday’s race, Piastri said: ‘Through the race, the illness didn’t impact me too much but I’m a lot lighter than I was at the start of the weekend
Piastri ended up regaining a couple of places but was again far from eclipsed by teammate Lando Norris, despite the English driver getting among the points in ninth place.
On Sunday evening Piastri posted to Twitter: ‘Not felt great all weekend so frustrated not to get points but happy to be fighting for top 10 positions throughout. Time to recover ahead of Miami!’
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