Piastri seeks redemption after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Pilot Oscar Piastri has expressed that he cannot afford more race weekends like the one at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix if he wants to secure this year’s drivers’ championship, competing against Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.
Piastri suffered an accident on the first lap of the race in Baku two weeks ago, which ended his streak of 44 consecutive races scoring points.
His McLaren teammate, Norris, finished the race in seventh place, reducing the gap in the standings to 25 points. Meanwhile, Verstappen secured his second consecutive victory, decreasing the gap to 69 points, with seven races remaining.
After losing 35 points to Verstappen in the last two races, Piastri pointed out that the weekend in Baku was a reminder of how quickly his championship lead can disappear.
“I think, even without considering who won the race, we don’t want to have weekends like Baku and we know we can’t afford to have weekends like Baku,” Piastri stated.
Oscar Piastri
Piastri’s weekend in Baku began to unravel in qualifying, when he crashed in Q3 and lined up ninth on the grid. Then, a false start dropped him to the back of the pack before his race-ending crash, attempting to overtake a group of cars on the outside of Turn 5.
After reflecting on the weekend, Piastri commented that there were clear lessons to be learned.
“I think qualifying, the lesson from that was more about a street circuit that will bite you hard if you push too hard,” he said. “I think qualifying was that simple.”
“But I think the race, the false start, a combination of factors I would say led to that. Then, obviously, the crash, I think it’s difficult to immediately eliminate what happened at the beginning. I think there are some lessons on how I can deal with that better and just lessons on risk, I suppose, is the best way to put it. Once again, there’s nothing revolutionary that I think needs to change or that is going to change.”
Piastri said he didn’t dwell on the accidents after the weekend in Baku and that his mind is focused on securing a better result at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.
“I think it was relatively easy to move forward. I think that, in a way, because the mistakes were so obvious, you leave each weekend trying to find how you can improve. But there are some weekends, normally the ones that go well, where it’s a bit more difficult to find where it’s possible to improve,” he said.
“But also, if you don’t have a clear idea of where things went wrong, often the hardest part is finding where to start. I think when the mistakes and consequences are so obvious, it’s pretty easy to find where to look. I think the reflection on that has been pretty straightforward and I feel comfortable coming back now. Certainly, I haven’t had to think too much about it, the lessons are there, but I’ve been able to get over it quickly and just approach this weekend like any other weekend.”
