Oscar Piastri will start ninth in Baku after McLaren rebuilt his car around a fresh chassis overnight and satisfied the FIA that it was a like-for-like swap — no pit-lane penalty, no parc fermé breach.
The Australian’s Q3 ended in the Turn 3 wall with four minutes to go, capping a chaotic qualifying that ran close to two hours and coughed up six red flags. The impact was heavy enough to damage the MCL39’s survival cell, and McLaren elected to change the tub rather than attempt patchwork repairs.
Under the Sporting Regulations, teams can replace a survival cell when a car suffers genuine accident damage — provided the FIA Technical Delegate approves the request. The catch: to keep the grid slot, the replacement must mirror the original in design, mass and function, and the suspension set-up has to be identical. In other words, you get a new tub, but not a new spec.
McLaren ticked every box. The team filed the scrutineering declaration for car No. 81 after the survival cell change, and the FIA signed it off. As a result, Piastri keeps P9, two places behind teammate — and title rival — Lando Norris.
There’s still the small matter of 51 laps through Baku’s concrete canyons, and Piastri wasn’t pretending to have all the answers.
“Not many people have done long runs this weekend, so the strategy is kind of up in the air,” he said. “That gives us opportunities. We’ll have to wait and see.”
It’s not nothing, though, to strap into a fresh chassis and instantly feel at home. Drivers often talk about “personality” differences between tubs that are supposedly identical. With parc fermé locking in the same ride heights, cambers and damper stacks, the challenge shifts from the garage to the driver: trust the car early, survive the first-lap traffic, and let Baku’s usual safety-car roulette deal a better hand.
The Norris-Piastri dynamic only adds spice. McLaren has the pace to fight at the front this year, and both drivers are in the championship conversation. If the deployment falls their way, a split strategy could be on the cards — especially given the lack of race data after a messy Saturday.
Elsewhere, Franco Colapinto is in similar territory. The Alpine rookie also required a new chassis after his qualifying crash but, like Piastri, will keep his spot on the grid in P16 after the team matched the spec and set-up.
Key takeaways ahead of lights out:
– McLaren rebuilt Piastri’s car around a new survival cell and preserved his grid slot by keeping identical components and set-up under parc fermĂ©.
– FIA confirmed receipt of the scrutineering declaration for car 81 and approved the change.
– Strategy is a blank canvas after a disjointed Saturday; expect safety-car windows to dictate the race more than raw stint pace.
– Piastri starts P9, Norris P7. If the early traffic clears, both orange cars could be factors late.
Baku rewards patience as much as pace. Piastri’s job now is simple: keep it clean, keep it close, and pounce when this street circuit does what it does every year — turn small margins into big results.
