McLaren has emerged as the strongest challenger to Red Bull Racing in recent races but has failed to deliver the results commensurate with its pace.
Norris won the Miami Grand Prix to chalk up his first F1 win as McLaren but there have been missed opportunities in Imola, Monaco, Red Bull Ring, and Silverstone.
Except for Norris’ clash with Max Verstappen in Austria, those failings have largely been operational.
Piastri has copped the brunt of them, the most recent being a strategy error at the British Grand Prix that cost him a shot at a potential victory – a fate Norris also endured.
That there have been so many near misses is, to Piastri, a positive of sorts, though he feels he’s now more than ready to climb onto the top step of the F1 rostrum.
“I think, definitely, I’m ready to do it,” he said.
“The kind of good but kind of bad thing is it’s never been the same thing that’s prevented us from winning.
“Obviously [in Silverstone] we made a wrong call. In Miami we had an issue in qualifying with traffic. Austria… well, the less said about qualifying the better.
“So I guess it’s a good thing that it’s not been a repeated error or mistake but I feel like there’s been a good handful now, I think on both sides of the garage, where we felt like we could have won the race.
“We’ve got the hardest part nailed,” he added.
“We’ve got an incredibly quick car, we just need to capitalise on using it.”
Piastri has already tasted F1 success, winning the Sprint in Qatar last year.
He sits fifth in the drivers’ championship with 124 points, with two second-place finishes to his name this season.
However, he’s been the third-best scored behind Verstappen and Norris over the last six races, with McLaren the best-scoring team in that period.
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