According to Nik Rosberg, McLaren CEO Zak Brown should have been more empathetic towards Oscar Piasti in the immediate aftermath of the Abu Dhabi GP.
Before this year’s race in Abu Dhabi, it was clear that whatever the battle for the title turned out to be, at least one of the McLaren drivers would be disappointed after the race. What’s more – there was a real possibility that McLaren would not win the driver’s title at all, if Max Verstappen got ahead of both of his drivers in the standings.
According to assumptions, Černý Petr eventually went to Oscar Piastri. He had a difficult starting position before the season finale – he was 16 points behind his colleague Lando Norris and the championship leader. Although the Australian was able to beat his teammate and thanks to the second row, he reduced his lead by three points, but he did not manage any more.
And it was in this context that 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg criticized the communication directed to Piastri by McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who told the Australian via team radio:
“It’s been a season! You’re a star. Seven wins. We love you. We’ll do it again next year. Thank you, Oscar, for everything you’ve done. It’s been a great year. Oscar, I’m very proud of you, it’s been a great team effort. We’re going to do it again next year. See you on stage.”
However, according to Rosberg, this euphoria was misplaced at the time.
“This was the worst moment of his racing career (given that he narrowly missed out on the title, editor’s note),” said the former German racer on the Sky F1 television channel.
“Maybe Zak could have shown a bit more empathy instead of celebrating like that. He could have said something like ‘next year is yours’, but it was difficult because Zak was also hugely excited (about the title for Norris, ed),” added Rosberg, who celebrated his only F1 title nine years ago.
