Piastri opens up about the cause of his rib injury

Reflecting on his recent rib injury, McLaren Oscar Piastri has now opened up on his health issue, revealing that his the seat in his McLaren played a role in the broken rib bone he raced with over several weekends.

Having taken his maiden F1 victory in Hungary, the Melbourne-born driver shared a post on his Instagram account during the summer break, revealing that he has been nursing a serious rib injury since the British Grand Prix.

Along with a selection of images from the opening phase of the season, Piastri captioned his post: “First part of the season done. First GP victory. First broken bone. Rib’s enjoying the break.”

An image shared by the McLaren driver displayed an ultrasound scan that reveals a fracture to his sixth rib. The date on the ultrasound scan suggests that the investigation was carried out on the Monday following the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Speaking to F1 TV at Zandvoort, the Australian has confirmed that a poorly-fitted F1 race seat caused his broken rib.

“You make the seat at the start of the year and sometimes you get it a little bit wrong. Some tracks don't expose it. But I think going from Barcelona, Austria, Silverstone… three pretty hardcore tracks.

“It was just a bit of a pressure point which eventually gave up. But it's all good again now. We've changed the seat and fixed it immediately pretty much. So, all back to normal.”

Providing more details about the injury, Piastri said said: “The scan was the day after Silverstone but it was definitely broken before Silverstone.”

Although he is still feeling the pain, McLaren have already put changes in place.

“I think we identified what we could change on the seat. Even with it being broken, the pain subsided a lot once we changed a few things.

“Even with driving around Budapest and Spa it was not getting any worse, it was actually getting better,” Piastri concluded.