Oscar Piastri is looking forward to heading to a quartet of venues with which he is already familiar ahead of F1’s summer break.
The sport heads next to the Red Bull Ring in Austria, before venturing to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix a week later.
Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium hosts the final race prior to the August shutdown, a week after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
It makes for four venues in succession that Piastri has first-hand experience of, three of them in F1 machinery.
“The next four circuits are all circuits I’ve been to, and more than once as well, so that’ll be nice,” he said.
“In saying that, Barcelona was a similar story and our pace was not very good, so it’s not a given that it will be better for me.
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“Of course, it’s a little bit more comfortable going into the weekend and knowing the circuits better, but similar to what I said in Barcelona; everyone can get to the limit quicker and be right on it.”
The next run of races comes after the Canadian Grand Prix where the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve served up a unique blend of permanent and temporary circuit with concrete barrier lining the racing surface in places.
It was an all-new track for Piastri, who was caught out in tricky wet conditions having progressed to Qualifying 3.
“Of course, it’s never nice to crash,” he observed.
“It’s honestly, I think, the first wall I’ve hit in five years.
“It was going to happen at some stage I guess, but I think even with how the penalties worked out and stuff like that, I don’t know how much more there would have been than P8, so I wasn’t too disappointed.
“Obviously a shame to end that way and cause the damage; now the team has to make extra parts and a late night for the mechanics, so, of course, it’s never nice.
“But from a performance perspective, I wasn’t too disappointed – I was much more disappointed in Barcelona, I think, where we had a better chance to be at the front of the grid.”
Despite the Saturday setback, Piastri again showed well in the grand prix.
While McLaren was less competitive in race-trim, he remained in contention throughout and was never far away from his highly rated team-mate, Lando Norris.
Heading to Austria, Piastri will benefit from the first wave of upgrades as part of a three-event blitz designed to propel the MCL60 to the front of the midfield battle.
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