Oscar Piastri has weighed in on the debate surrounding whether Formula 1 champions need a ruthless edge to succeed, suggesting a “nice guy” can still rise to the top.
Piastri was probed after his team-mate Lando Norris queried the notion that drivers must exhibit aggressive or cutthroat behaviour to win the ultimate prize in the sport.
Norris emphasised that he would rather stay true to himself than adopt a “f**k you” mentality associated with legends such as Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, and Max Verstappen.
“I feel like there is a very prescribed version of how people say a World Champion needs to be – overly aggressive,” Norris told the Guardian.
“I want to win a championship. I’d rather just be a good person and try to do well. I’ll do whatever I can to win a championship but maybe I won’t sacrifice in my life as much as some others, in terms of who I am as a person and have the ‘f**k you’ mentality people say you’ve got to have.
“I still believe I can be a World Champion but doing it by being a nice guy.
“I want to just enjoy my life. That’s kind of the attitude that’s maybe not as much of a killer instinct. I just don’t think you have to have that to be a World Champion.
“I want to prove you can be a world champion and not have it. But I don’t want to be pushed around and I also never want to be seen as giving things up because I’m too nice.
“I’ll still fight for things and I’ll still take risks and I’ll still do whatever I know I can do to be a World Champion but without losing the liberty of who I am.
“I don’t have to show everyone I’ve got that kind of attitude.
“I feel like people go around trying to put on a front and show people that you’ve got that attitude.
“I can easily go and pretend I’ve got a killer instinct and act like a bit of a dick that might give people that perception.
“But there are certain things I would not do that other champions have done.
“I don’t have as much of a killer instinct as probably most of the drivers or most champions because I was just not brought up that way.”
Piastri backs Norris verdict
Piastri, now in his third full F1 campaign, provided a similar sentiment, backing the idea that a softer approach does not have to come at the expense of success.
“I think everyone has their own personality, everyone has their own style,” the Australian said in Saudi Arabia.
“I think the most detrimental thing you can do is try and do it in a way that’s not your own style. For some people, that looks very different.
“There are certain characteristics that I think you do need.
“Obviously being fast is the most important one. But there are certain traits that you need.
“But I think, as Lando said, that doesn’t mean you need to be a bad person. You need to be tough on track. But there’s a lot of different ways you can go about it.
“I don’t think there’s one style or one perfect mould of what a Formula 1 World Champion looks like. I think they’ve all looked slightly different.
“You could argue that some of them look similar in a lot of ways, but again, I think the most important thing is to try and do it the way you want to do it, and that will give you the most.”
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