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Oscar Piastri has revealed he cannot afford to switch off for a split second as his biggest lesson of his superb rookie F1 season.
Piastri earned numerous plaudits throughout his maiden campaign with McLaren which finally came alive with the arrival of a mid-season upgrade on his MCL60.
The young Australian went on to finish a credible ninth in the drivers’ standings, and although a long way adrift of team-mate Lando Norris, will be remembered for scoring the team’s only win this past season with his sprint triumph in Qatar.
Whilst Piastri has conceded to learning “a lot of lessons” from his first year in F1, for him, the biggest was the fact “you can’t rest’.
He added: “Making a mistake in Formula 1 costs you a lot more than it might do otherwise.
“All the drivers are extremely competitive, all the teams are now extremely competitive, and if you take it a little bit easy you can suddenly lose a lot of time, a lot of positions.
“So that’s probably the biggest lesson. There have been specifics on driving and energy management as well. It’s been a busy year. But yeah, just how competitive everything’s been, that you can’t rest on your laurels.”
As to whether he meant his personal energy management, given the exhausting end to the F1 season, in particular, of that of the car, he added: “Both! It’s been a busy year.”
Reflecting on the fact the season-ending double-header of Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi, given the night-time schedule involved with the former before switching to a 12-hour difference to the latter, Piastri remarked it had been “a tough one for most of us”.
“Just having a lot less spare time to relax and stuff like that,” said Piastri. “It’s been the busiest year of my life, but I’m loving it, so I wouldn’t change it.”
Piastri is hopeful the schedule for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is the start of a season-ending triple-header next year before concluding in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, will have an easier schedule.
For the inaugural event, qualifying ran at midnight local time, and the grand prix at 10pm, resulting in finishes for all concerned in the early hours of the following morning.
“There are some things we would like to improve,” said Piastri. “The schedule is probably the biggest thing.
“We’ve already been told that it’s being worked on, so they’re listening, which is nice.”
