Oscar Piastri says the high degradation races are the ones that he has to work at the moment as he falling behind to Lando Norris.
Despite the recent surge in performances for McLaren’s Piastri, the Australian is aware of his shortcomings against Norris. As seen in some of the races including last weekend’s F1 Japanese GP, he is suffering in high degradation races.
Tyre management is not easy and something which is new to all the rookies in F1, even though they do small bit of tyre management in F2, it is not enough. Piastri has had his moments this year and he knows he has to work on that side to improve.
“I just wasn’t quick enough at certain points of the race in Japan, I think,” said Piastri. “You know, these high-deg races are probably the biggest thing I need to try and work on at the moment. I think it’s still quite fresh for me, obviously. In all the junior racing before this there are no races like this.
“So the only way you can learn from it is by just doing the races. So, definitely a few things, had I had this race again, that I would have done a bit different. I think the tyre management and just pace at certain points of the race was not as strong as I would have liked as I said. The first stint it felt like everyone was driving extremely slowly and then when I tried to push a bit more the tyres didn’t really let me go much faster.
“So a few things to work on there and yeah, just pace overall in the races. And like I said, in these kinds of races there’s no easy way to learn apart from just going through the races and having an experience where it’s good or bad. So yeah, I think pace, I think the one lap pace especially in last few weekends has been a good improvement from the start of the year.
“But definitely, in these kinds of races, the race pace is still an area to improve. That’s all part of the learning. So, yeah, exciting to know that we can finish on the podium, even if I feel like there’s more to come,” summed up Piastri, who secured his first F1 podium in Japan after finishing in the Top 3 in a sprint event.
Here’s Lando Norris on Sergio Perez holding him up
Here’s Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri about start
