Piastri is already an F1 winner, having claimed honours in the Qatar Sprint last season, and has been on the verge of a grand prix victory on a handful of occasions in 2024.

Team-mate Lando Norris chalked up his first career win in Miami, a race Piastri ran second in before an ill-timed Safety Car hurt his chances.

The Australian was second in Monaco, having qualified on the front row alongside race-winner Charles Leclerc. He was similarly fast in Imola, too.

Those events could all have resulted in a maiden grand prix win, but for one reason or another didn’t.

“All of them have kind of been different opportunities,” Piastri reasoned.

“We’ve seen in Canada, potentially the timing of the Safety Car and stuff like that.

“Monaco, qualifying. Imola, qualifying again, but from a procedural point of view with the penalty on my side. Miami, with the crash…

“It’s not really been one specific thing.”

While there’s no commonality to why he’s not yet converted, there is a common thread in laying the foundation for a shot at victory, Piastri reasoned.

“Qualifying is still very much the king of your weekend,” he explained.

“It’s always been the case in motorsport, and especially Formula 1, but I think as these cars get more and more downforce they become a bit harder to follow again, and qualifying becomes even more important.”

Piastri’s next opportunity comes at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, an event in which he expects to feature towards the front.

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya circuit marks a departure from the recent circuit style, with a greater emphasis on high-speed performance.

It’s an area the McLaren has tended to do well in, though recent upgrades designed to bolster low-speed performance may have changed that.

“I don’t know if it’s so much a test necessarily for us as it is others, potentially,” Piastri said of the weekend ahead.

“We should be pretty confident that we’ll be somewhere in the mix.

“We’ve had, let’s say the last two weekends have been quite similar in some of their characteristics; quite low-speed corners, some kerbs and bumps to take into account.

“But the few tracks before that were quite different. I would say here is quite different again; much more high-speed content.

“It’ll be interesting to see where we sit,” he added.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had really high-speed corners like the last sector, into Turn 9, [and] Turn 3, so it’ll be interesting to see where we stack up.”

Opening practice for the Spanish Grand Prix begins today at 13:30 local time (21:30 AEST).