Oscar Piastri has denied that McLaren team-mate Lando Norris’ win in Miami last month has now increased the pressure on him to log his maiden Formula 1 victory.
Piastri capitalised on McLaren’s resurgence last term to beat Max Verstappen and Norris to the Sprint win in Qatar, taking McLaren’s first success since Monza 2021.
However, Norris went one better earlier this season in Miami as he prevailed on his 110th F1 appearance to end his elusive wait to stand on the top step of a podium.
Meanwhile, Piastri was made to rue the Safety Car timing and a clash with Carlos Sainz ending his podium hopes, while he was given a three-place grip drop at Imola.
But the Australian, who finished second in Monaco last weekend, expressed that he had been encouraged with those performances despite the disappointing results.
Asked how much pressure he was placing on himself to replicate his team-mate’s accomplishment, Piastri replied prior to the Monaco Grand Prix weekend: “Very little.
“You know, I think the last two weekends have been very strong for myself. I think Imola in particular, you know, Miami there’s a couple of things I feel like we’ve done a bit better but Imola I felt was a very good weekend from start to finish. You know, from the first lap of practice to the last lap of the race. We finished fourth.
“So sometimes that’s just how it goes and I would in some ways rather be happy with my performance finishing fourth then I’ll be pretty happy if I win a race no matter what happens but finishing on the podium going it wasn’t a very good weekend.
“In the long term you gain more satisfaction and more learning from being satisfied with yourself so not putting much pressure on it.
“I think it will come naturally. In the last two weekends with different circumstances the results could have looked very different so I’ll just keep doing what I’ve done in the last couple of weekends and you just got to put yourself in the position to get these results and yeah you do that enough and the odds come in your favour and it’ll happen.”
Although McLaren has gone from struggling to score points to consistent podium scorers since his debut, Piastri explained that his overall approach has not altered.
Asked whether he had noticed a change in how he deals with weekends in his sophomore season compared to his rookie term, Piastri responded: “Not massively.
“I think the start of the year has been a bit more comfortable than let’s say 12 months ago.
“A bit more established, a bit more confidence, a few more results under my belt, so it’s just that extra comfort factor.
“Everything else is more or less the same to be honest, the nerves are still there, the preparation is still very similar to how it was.
“It’s just instead of going to a lot of these places for the first time in an F1 car, you’ve got that experience already, so it kind of naturally evolves but not changed.”
