Oscar Piastri feels his rookie F1 season has so far been “a baptism of fire” in the wake of the latest ‘crazy race’.
Piastri, though, is grateful for the steep learning curve he is experiencing, with the Dutch Grand Prix adding to the slope given the wet-dry-wet conditions at Zandvoort that sparked chaos on occasions.
By the end of a remarkable 72 laps, Piastri was at least relieved to bring home his MCL60, scoring two points from a ninth-place finish, two places behind team-mate Lando Norris, who had started second.
“Yes, it was chaotic, definitely,” reflected Piastri. “To have two cars in the points, and in one piece, is a decent afternoon.
“I think there were maybe a few opportunities that we could have done a bit more with, also a couple of mistakes from my side that certainly didn’t help our cause.
“But a lot to learn from. For me, we’ve had a lot of crazy races, so it’s been a bit of a baptism of fire in my rookie season, but all part of the learning experience.”
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The overall weekend was without doubt one of the toughest for Piastri so far this season which, by his own admission, was not helped by his crash early in the second practice session.
Piastri was able to recognise his lack of dry running over that hour-long outing had an effect when the track dried at the end of qualifying, and he failed to reproduce what he had previously shown he was capable of, leading to an eighth-place grid slot.
On his first F1 visit to Zandvoort, the track threw everything at him.
“Definitely,” he said. “I didn’t help myself either with the crash in FP2. Every day this weekend has been a massive learning point.
“Of course, ideally, I wouldn’t put it (the car) in the wall to have to learn how much that would damage the rest of the weekend, but I certainly know how much it does now.
“So a few things that I definitely wish I could have had again, but overall, to get a couple of points on such a crazy afternoon is not too bad.”
Given the experiences from this season so far, Piastri’s growth is exponential
“The first part of the season, there were so many things I had to learn in terms of racing, in terms of still gelling with the car,” assessed the 22-year-old Melburnian.
“I feel now I’m in a much more comfortable place with the car than I was at the start of the year.
“Just a couple of mistakes here and there, and certainly in races like this, the only way to learn from them and know what to do is by experiencing them.
“I feel it’s definitely been a learning curve in some areas, but I think the confidence, and my confidence in my ability, the car, and the team is still very high.”
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