Piastri has been knocking on the door of a maiden grand prix success for some time, coming close on the streets of Monaco earlier this season.
McLaren has emerged as a genuine contender at each event and is currently on a run of seven-straight races with a driver on the podium.
Piastri was second in last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix after team-mate Lando Norris was forced to retire after tangling with Max Verstappen as they battled over the race lead.
The 23-year-old believes he can go one better this weekend in Silverstone.
“I think I’m definitely in the hunt for the win,” Piastri asserted.
“We’ve had a really competitive car for the last three months. There’s been a lot of near misses and opportunities. I don’t think there’s been a clear-cut opportunity where we could have easily won. But we’ve been in the fight for a long time now.
“I don’t think that really changes that mindset now. I think we’ve given ourselves enough evidence on enough different tracks to be able to say that we’re back and able to fight for wins.
“So for myself, I want to be up in the fight for that.”
Piastri’s confidence comes from a car that now appears to have few weaknesses.
The MCL38 proved rapid out of the box during testing but carried over traits of its predecessor, the MCL60 – a peaky machine that, once upgraded, worked well at high-speed but gave up time in low-speed content.
Developments introduced in Miami have addressed that, transforming the car into a more rounded package and a genuine threat to Red Bull Racing.
“I think it should perform everywhere,” Piastri reasoned.
“I think there will be relative weaknesses and strengths compared to other teams.
“Ferrari were very strong in Monaco, Red Bull I would say quite strong in Austria, especially in the high-speed. So there’s going to be chops and changes between everybody. Mercedes are in the fight now as well, with Ferrari too.
“We should be confident that we’ll be competitive everywhere,” he added.
“Even this first part of the season we’ve had so many different types of track, different conditions, different surfaces and we’ve been one of the quickest cars at basically everywhere we’ve gone.”
While expected to be in contention for victory, Piastri remains wary of the threat posed by Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing this weekend.
“I think Red Bull will be strong,” the Australian noted.
“They were very quick in the high-speed corners in Barcelona, very quick in the high-speed in Austria.
“Basically, this whole track is high-speed corners, so I think they’ll be very tough to beat.
“I think it’s been a strength of ours in the past as well and there is some low-speed corners which we’ve certainly made a strength in the last few races.
“So I think it will be a good fight, I think, towards the front but, given how quick they were in the high-speed last week compared to everyone, not just us, I think they’ll be very tough.”
Opening practice for the British Grand Prix begins at 12:30 local time on Friday (21:30 AEST).
Discussion about this post