Piastri sums up McLaren's gamble in Canada perfectly: "We could have been heroes but we looked like idiots"

The window between genius and disaster in Formula 1 is often measured in millimetres or in this case, millimetres of rainfall. McLaren made the call to put Piastri and Lando Norris on intermediate tyres for the start of the Canadian Grand Prix, a decision that made sense given the conditions on the grid. Audi and Cadillac also took the gamble, but it didn't pay off.

Piastri painted a vivid picture of what those opening moments were like. "It was raining and between the anthem and getting in the car, it was pretty wet on the ground. You could clearly tell where it was wet and dry," he explained. On intermediates in those conditions, the logic was sound. But as every driver who started on slicks quickly found out, the dry line was coming in fast, and the track was drying even faster. "Getting to the grid on slicks was not easy, getting to full throttle was tough. Unfortunately for us, it stopped raining," Piastri said.

The result was a race that never got going for the Australian. While drivers on slicks eventually found their grip and temperature, Piastri was left nursing a tyre that was designed for conditions that no longer existed. From a car that had been genuinely competitive throughout the Canada weekend, he found himself shuffled to the back of the pack, ending the afternoon in eleventh place and outside the points entirely.

His post-race summary of the situation was instant classic material. "If it rained a little bit more we would have looked like heroes. It didn't, so we looked like idiots," Piastri told Sky Sports. The delivery was perfectly dry — no pun intended — and the logic was airtight. One more shower and McLaren's call would have been hailed as a masterclass in reading the conditions. Instead, it will go down as one of the gambles of the season that did not come off.

It is a particularly painful result when viewed alongside teammate Norris's weekend, which also ended in misfortune, despite a good start. McLaren leave Montreal with no points from a race they had the pace to score well in, and with the championship picture looking increasingly difficult. Norris has been hampered by mechanical issues at key moments this season, and now a strategy call has cost Piastri a probable points finish on top of that.