Oscar Piastri has reflected on the opening half of his debut Formula 1 season with an honest appraisal of the year to date.
Piastri has quickly established himself as a star of the future after a solid start to the campaign, capitalising on McLaren’s upturn in pace in more recent rounds.
The Australian narrowly missed out on a podium at the British Grand Prix when an ill-timed Safety Car saw him drop behind Lewis Hamilton.
However, he bounced back at the Belgian Grand Prix, leading the F1 Sprint for a time before trailing Max Verstappen to the chequered flag.
“If I was to give a grade, I would say probably a B,” Piastri told Speedcafe.
“There have just been a few too many mistakes for my liking.
“I always try to, like everyone, get the most out of what I’ve got available, and I just feel like at a few races this year I’ve missed out on opportunities to capitalise.
“I think Barcelona qualifying, in the end, it didn’t make that much difference to our results on Sunday, but when you have those opportunities to qualify high up on the grid… At that point in the season was a rarity for us.
“A couple of mistakes in races,” he added.
“But at the same time, knowing that there was going to be a learning experience, and these mistakes are going to happen… I think there’s just a couple too many for my liking.”
Piastri qualified ninth in Spain, losing time in the tricky damp conditions as team-mate Lando Norris recorded the third-best time.
Race day in Barcelona was dry and hotter, with both McLaren drivers going backwards as they battled a car that struggled with tyre degradation.
But by that point, Piastri had already established his credentials.
His debut race in Bahrain was cut short due to reliability issues, but an impressive qualifying in Saudi Arabia saw him progress to Qualifying 3 for the first time.
The race unravelled following early contact, but he remained in contact with Norris.
He scored his first points on home soil in Melbourne, staying out of trouble in a chaotic Australian Grand Prix to take eighth.
He was just outside the points in Azerbaijan before nursing a brake-by-wire failure for much of the race in Miami.
In Canada, he tagged the wall during qualifying when he dropped a wheel onto a wet patch of the circuit, though again lined up inside the top 10 before sliding outside of the points as the McLaren struggled on race day.
Austria was a watershed moment for the team as upgrades were introduced to Norris’ car, offering a glimpse into what the team might be capable of going forward.
The Brit was fourth that weekend, while Piastri finished a lap down in 16th.
Next time out, he too had McLaren’s upgrades and was on course for a podium were it not for a Safety Car shortly after his stop, demoting him to fourth.
At the Hungarian Grand Prix, he was on the second row alongside Norris, finished fifth, and led for a time in the F1 Sprint in Belgium a week later.
The race ended early after a clash with Carlos Sainz at the opening corner.
“There’s been some good moments,” Piastri observed.
“I think Saudi in qualifying to be up there; my second qualifying session was a very nice confidence boost early on.
“Melbourne, to get my first points was nice, even if it wasn’t [a normal race], I was happy to get the points but it wasn’t the most satisfying result to get them in the way I did.
“I think Silverstone was a very good weekend,” he added.
“We had the car to make it happen as well, but also, I feel like I did a good job; I did a good lap in qualifying. I feel like that was by far my most complete race, with no mistakes, no sort of major lack of pace, you know, could stay quite close to Lando, with small differences on the car, in terms of what we were running.
“That was a good confidence boost again.”
Heading into the second half of the season, the challenge is to keep that momentum going.
“I want to try and keep repeating those performances, regardless of where we are in the pecking order,” he said.
“That’s what I want to strive to do.”
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