Oscar Piastri feels he endured many ups and downs throughout his rookie F1 season that turned it into a rollercoaster ride he did not anticipate going into it.
Ahead of the campaign, the level of expectation on Piastri was low despite a stellar junior career that saw him win three consecutive titles, including F3 and F2, before a year on the sidelines with Alpine.
After McLaren poached Piastri from its French rivals, even then the situation remained relatively unchanged as the former conceded before the start of the season it was behind in its development of the MCL60.
It was not until the ninth race of the year in Austria that McLaren finally delivered via an upgrade package that thrust it towards the front of the grid.
Piastri had to wait until the following race at Silverstone to get his first taste of the new machinery, helping McLaren score a two-four finish, with the Australian qualifying just behind team-mate Lando Norris who went on to take the runner-up spot.
From that moment, Piastri delivered some stellar drives to underline his potential, notably claiming his first podium in Japan before securing McLaren its only victory of the year by winning the sprint race in Qatar.
That success was unfortunately followed by a four-race run of incidents in Austin, Mexico City, São Paulo, and Las Vegas before concluding with a relative high of sixth in Abu Dhabi after qualifying third.
“It’s definitely been a bigger rollercoaster than I expected,” said the 22-year-old.
“I knew there would be ups and downs, maybe not as down at the start, or as up at the end, but I’ve really learned a lot.
“I feel like I’ve had basically every situation you could have, apart from a championship fight, and so it’s been a good year in terms of learning.
“As a team, we’re learning how to compete at the front again, which is exciting. It’s not a position we’ve been in for 10 years, so it’s nice to be having these conversations, and going through these scenarios.
“For me, it’s really a privilege to be fighting at the front so early in my career.
“There are people who go through their whole F1 career who don’t have the opportunity I’ve had in 22 races, so I’m very, very grateful for that, and I’m looking forward to plenty more years to come where, hopefully, we can do that more often.”
In light of what McLaren and Piastri achieved over the second half of the campaign, the expectation levels and pressure will rise on both the team and its Australian driver going into 2024.
Piastri can appreciate that and is confident he can handle it with a full season of learning under his belt, and with knowledge of every circuit.
“As a team, we’ve tasted a lot more success in the second half of the year,” said Piastri.
“So now, when we have these kinds of races (referring to Abu Dhabi), they’re sort of our off weekends, it feels like, which is an exciting place to be.
“We’re fully expecting next year to go into it fighting for more, or at least making the good weekends we’ve had this year, every weekend, but I’m sure Mercedes and Ferrari have the same ideas.
“So we’ll definitely try our best, definitely try and start it a hell of a lot better than we did this year!
“For myself, I feel like I’ve got much more experience under my belt, and, hopefully, I can use that for whatever position we find ourselves in.”
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