McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has revelled in his race management having taken a vast “step forward” in the 2024 Formula 1 season compared to his rookie campaign.
Piastri sustained an impressive debut season in the top flight as he capitalised on McLaren’s remarkable turnaround to amass two podiums and a Sprint win in Qatar.
The Woking-based squad’s momentum has carried into this term as 10 successive podiums – including two victories – have seen it close to 42 points behind Red Bull.
But while Lando Norris fronted McLaren’s initial charge to emerge as Max Verstappen’s main challenger, Piastri has been the lead MCL38 home in the past two races.
The Australian beat Norris at the start to earn the right to pip his team-mate to his maiden F1 win in Hungary and then backed that up with another podium in Belgium.
Piastri has been able to provide a match to Norris under single-lap conditions since their partnership began, but the Briton has tended to have the edge on long stints.
However, a deep delve with his engineers back in April has since helped Piastri to improve in race trim and he thinks his recent results are a testament to his progress.
“I think definitely the last few weeks have been, been very strong from, from my side,” Piastri, who inherited second when George Russell was disqualified, said.
“I think honestly the whole season’s been, been pretty good.
“A couple of weekends in the middle of the year were, were a bit tricky. Japan and China mainly were pretty tough and obviously Barcelona.
“But I feel like all the other races have been, been quite strong.
“Just we’ve had a lot of things that that haven’t been going our way in some ways.
“Whether it’s interesting track limit penalties [in Austria] or crashes or mistakes, there’s always kind of been just things and I feel like the last few weekends I have been able to tidy it up.
“So, I feel like I’ve taken a step forward from last year, definitely. And, you know, I think in these tricky kind of races like this, you know, last year I was struggling in a race like this.
“So I feel like I’ve made good progress and obviously the car is very quick as well. So yeah, I feel like I’m gaining some nice momentum, which is good.”
However, Piastri, who is 32 points behind Norris in the standings now, has acknowledged that things can change in an instant once the season resumes in Zandvoort.
“But I know how quickly it can turn around and go the other way as well,” he cautioned. “So no, I just keep trying to build on it, but I feel like I’m in a strong place.”
