Oscar Piastri is chasing a Lewis Hamilton record. Plus: F1 rain debates

New York Times

4 days ago

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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where we're wondering if it's possible to write a Formula One newsletter with a head cold and not get sidetracked by nostalgic summer memories of a children's backyard toy. I guess we'll see. Achoo.
I'm Patrick, and Madeline Coleman will be along shortly. Let's get to it.
A stat snuck up on me this weekend.
Oscar Piastri won the Belgian GP. That's not the stat — the stat is that he's finished every grand prix since the 2023 Mexico City GP. That's 41 in a row — the third longest race-finishing streak in F1 history.
The only drivers with longer runs of finishing a race are Max Verstappen (43 races in a row, from the 2022 Emilia-Romagna GP to the 2024 Saudi Arabian GP) and Lewis Hamilton (48 races in a row, from the 2018 British GP to the 2020 Bahrain GP). You know, the last two guys to win the F1 drivers' title.
Hey, wait a minute. Piastri leads the drivers' championship right now. Over the last 10 years, how many drivers' champions were in the middle of a 30-plus race-finishing streak when they won the title?
Seven of the last 10 champions (70 percent!) had a live 30‑plus finishing streak during their title‑winning year.
Some takeaways from this:
Not required, but increasingly common. Before the current super‑reliable hybrid era, even 20 straight finishes was impressive. Now, modern tech means front‑running cars can stay untouchable for seasons at a time — as long as they have a talented driver behind the wheel.
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Correlation, not causation. Long streaks tend to appear when a driver-and-car combination is dominant (Hamilton/Rosberg at Mercedes, Verstappen and Red Bull).
Still room for exceptions. Verstappen's streak ended at Australia in 2024 due to a brake failure. He won the title by 63 points. Hamilton's run ended in 2020 because he contracted Covid-19 and missed the following race and won the title by 124 points. If you have outright speed, you can survive the odd zero.
So what does this mean for Piastri? A mega‑streak isn't strictly necessary to become an F1 champion, but in the current era, it's becoming a very common hallmark of a championship campaign. Let's treat it as an early warning sign that Piastri is on his way to something.
By the way, if you're wondering: Lando Norris' longest streak of race finishes in F1 is 34 — ended a month ago in Canada, when he (as we put it) self-destructed.
Now let's head down to the paddock, where Madeline has discovered a miserable mistake from Haas…
A few different things went wrong for Haas on race day. Ollie Bearman had to manage an engine issue for the entire grand prix, losing three positions from it, the rookie said. The problem left him struggling to overtake, despite the car having competitive pace throughout the weekend to that point. On top of that, his setup did impact his race as well.
'He had lots of pace with the downforce level he had, he was really happy with the car, and he had so much confidence,' team principal Ayao Komatsu said in the team's post-race recap. 'We knew, however, if you have that setup and you're in traffic, you're not going to overtake, which is unfortunately exactly what happened.'
The team also pitted both Bearman and Esteban Ocon a bit late, a lap too late for the rookie and two laps late for the Frenchman, Ocon said. And this is where matters got worse for Ocon. He pitted on Lap 13 out of 44, and the team fitted him with a used set of tires despite a fresh set waiting.
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'On Esteban's side, we had an operational error and the pit stop timing wasn't right,' Komatsu said in the team's post-race recap. 'The speed is there, though; I think we may have the fifth-fastest car out there, which is amazing and hats off to the team who delivered it, but we just failed to execute.
'We have one more race before the shutdown, so we need to focus on the basics, and if we do that extremely well, I honestly have no doubt that we can score with both cars.'
Sunday's race at Spa dragged out for about an hour as intermittent downpours turned Eau Rouge into a Slip 'N Slide. (Side-note: The Slip 'N Slide folks were geniuses. Take two items most American families have — a tarp, a hose — and just… sell it back to them.) (Side-note to the side-note: I just read that the inventor of Slip 'N Slide made it when he saw his son sliding on concrete. So add Slip 'N Slide to the long list of inventions created to save kids from themselves. Outlet covers, kids' scissors and Slip 'N Slides…
I forgot what I was talking about. Oh, right —) The delay inconvenienced a few teams (such as Red Bull) who thought we'd get more wet-weather racing than we did, and tailored their setups accordingly. Verstappen was among those who lamented the lost chances for genuine wet-weather wheel-to-wheel action in exchange for cautious procession laps.
But, as Madeline reminds us, safety's no joke at a venue with Spa's dark legacy:
Changes made over the years prompted F1's return in the 1980s, but in recent years, the Eau Rouge and Raidillon section (Turns 2 through 4) has become a topic of concern. Anthoine Hubert died in 2019 following a multi-car crash that started at Raidillon during a F2 race. In a Formula Regional European Championship race that took place in wet conditions in 2023, Dilano van 't Hoff died after an accident between Raidillon and the Kemmel Straight.
So it shouldn't be too surprising that race control took great care with the start of the race. But, as Verstappen suggests, are we losing something essential by limiting the wet-weather racing? Check out Madeline's piece for more on the post-Spa debate.
No Outside the Points today because I'm sick and would like a nap. But I will leave you with a final thought on Spa.
Piastri's first lap (OK, it was the fifth lap because of the rain delay), race-winning pass on Norris was terrific. Another one of those 'Looks Easier on TV' moments — especially because he set it up by following one car length back through Eau Rouge, one of the most iconic (and deadliest) turns in F1.
He and Norris are going at least 174 mph (280 km/h) there. On a wet track.
Here's another angle of Eau Rouge, taken from an onboard camera on Charles Leclerc's car.
That's rocket-ship stuff. We take what these guys do for granted.
No wonder Piastri said he was trying to 'be as brave as I dared' through Eau Rouge on that winning move. I loved what Luke Smith said about Piastri on Sunday: that 'these are the moments that will prove decisive' in the title fight. (Read his full story here!)
They're also the moments that truly set us apart from the drivers who make them — and why we tune in every weekend.
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