Oscar Piastri not too fussed about his F1 points lead getting trimmed, as he notes about McLaren allowing them to race irrespective of constructors’ title scene.
At one point, Piastri had stretched his lead to 23 points but it has now trimmed down to just nine points after 14 races, with 10 more to go. It all happened in the last four races, where Lando Norris picked up three victories over the Australian, who had to be content with second in all of them.
It might have been much closer if not for Norris’ non-finish in Canada. But Piastri is not too fussed about the gap. Of course, he would have liked it to be larger ahead of the second half, but he agrees there were some missed opportunities, especially in the last few races which made the difference.
He is confidence still to do the job by the end of it, even if it is this close against Norris. “I mean, the biggest lead of the year has been 23, and it’s not moved within 10 points for the last ten races almost,” said Piastri. “So, I’m not really that fussed with that. Obviously, it would have been nice to have the extra points, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a trend.
“One second different, and the trend would have looked quite different today. Things happening in the last few races differently could have meant quite a different picture. But you can say that about pretty much every race this year and about every championship ever. So, I’m not concerned at all. I think the pace for the first half of the year has been very, very strong, and I think the last few races as well have been very good.
“I feel like I’ve driven a lot of strong races, and it’s been very tightly fought. So, I expect more of the same after the break. I have a lot of confidence in myself that I can do it. Not every weekend has been perfect, but there’s not many weekends in my whole life that have been perfect. Just trying to put together a solid, consistent year is ultimately going to be important.
“The pace in the last few weekends, especially Spa, I’ve been very confident in and very proud of. I’m more than capable of continuing that for the rest of the year. I’m confident that I can do it, but it’s not going to be easy,” summed up Piastri, who sees improvement on qualifying from himself from 2024. Also, he has no regrets about pushing the extra inch in securing better results.
He agrees that being consistent works, but he also wants to take risks and go for the kill. One has to be like that throughout and not at the start of the year or end of it. “You can make an argument for either one,” started Piastri. “You can be consistent, but if you’re consistently coming second, that’s not very useful. You need to have both.
“At the level of the field and the level of my teammate, you need to bring your best. Inevitably, when you’re pushing that hard, there are going to be mistakes here and there because it doesn’t come without risk. You can’t afford to take things easy and try and be consistent. You need to push and you need to be quick. Of course, you try and execute as best as you can, but you need both to win the championship. You can’t just rely on one.
“Honestly, it’s a very similar answer. The way you win races at the back end of the season is the same way as at the start. You need to be faster than everyone around you and you need to make the least mistakes possible. That aspect doesn’t really change. Like I said, it’s great to be consistent, but if you’re consistently being beaten, that’s not a recipe for a championship. It’s a balancing act of both.
“Obviously, if you’re a robot, you’d be able to be as fast as possible and make zero mistakes, but we’re all humans, so that’s not possible. There is going to be an element of minimizing mistakes, but you need to be fast at the same time, and you can’t afford to sit back. If you try to take that approach, you’ll end up being beaten. Overall, I’ve been happy with qualifying this year.
“Still not been perfect, but it’s certainly been a good improvement from last year. I don’t really feel like there’s one area that’s lacking. I felt the same last year; it’s just that I never got it all together on the same weekend very often. This year, I felt much more like that, and it’s just going to be about trying to do that every weekend to the end of the year. So that’s going to be the key,” summed up Piastri.
The Australian is not fussed about the constructors’ title fight as well. He notes that McLaren has given them freedom to fight irrespective of the teams’ championship. Also, there is no example made out of McLaren’s past rivalries like that of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
He feels both are mature and conscious enough to be mindful of the situation and what’s at stake. So, both he and Norris know the boundaries set to keep it clean. “Everybody knows the history of Senna and Prost and that rivalry, and other rivalries outside of McLaren,” said Piastri. “You don’t really need an example to set the culture that we have at the moment.
“We’re both very conscious that we want this opportunity of having the car and the team in this position for many years to come. The best way we can help as drivers apart from driving fast is by giving the team good morale and good confidence and making it a good team environment. That’s very important for us this year and going forward.
“We’ve all seen how it can go wrong, but we have a lot of reasons to push for it to not go wrong. Yes, we are free to fight this year at the moment. ‘If we win the Constructors [then we are allowed to fight]’?. No, we’ve been free to race from race one,” summed up Piastri.
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