Oscar Piastri says the pressure of fighting for the Formula 1 championship is similar to his junior titles, but his past successes have shown him there is “not a magic formula” to winning.
Lando Norris won back-to-back races in Austria and Silverstone to cut Piastri’s lead at the top of the standings to just eight points, but the Australian retains the advantage having led the way since Saudi Arabia in April. Already fighting for a title in just his third season in F1, Piastri says his run of three championships in a row – in Formula Renault in 2019, F3 in 2020 and F2 in 2021 – offer him valuable experience.
“It’s a bit of a different scenario because the season is so long in Formula 1, and I think if my championships in my junior career taught me anything it’s that there’s not one way of going about it,” Piastri told RACER. “I would say all three that I won were in quite different ways.
“I’d say Formula Renault I was quick but made quite a few mistakes. F3 maybe lacking a little bit of ultimate pace but very very consistent and always there when I needed to be. F2 fortunately was kind of a combination of the consistency and pace, but there’s not a magic formula to how you win a championship.
“So I feel like I’ve tried to take the lessons from that and definitely consistency is a massive part of that for sure. But ultimately you need to be consistently fast and taking risks when you need to and I think that’s where it’s a balancing act. But I think from a pressure standpoint it feels quite familiar so that side of things is probably the most similar.”
Piastri often faced opposition from teammates in junior categories and this season is again turning into an intra-team battle at McLaren, with the 24-year-old seeing advantages and disadvantages to the scenario.
“I think in some ways it makes it easier because you can see what your opponent’s doing. You know what they’re doing with the car, you know how they’re driving the car, so you have a lot more insight in some ways. But it also makes it more difficult because that obviously goes the other way as well.
“I think the other thing that makes it difficult is obviously when it comes to races and strategy, obviously only one of you can pit at the same time, or both of you can pit at the same time, but one of you is going to lose a lot. So that’s another element that becomes difficult to manage for the team, more so than the drivers.
“But there’s positives and negatives of having that battle within the same team. I think we do a very good job of managing it because we’ve seen in the past it can be a pretty difficult situation to manage.
“So I think it’s not always been smooth sailing, but I think our way of being able to get over those bumps or those hurdles is what is going to set us up for long-term success.”
