Piastri Share's On and Off-Track Learnings From His First Season In F1

Saturday, 13 January 2024 at 23:00

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Oscar Piastri is about to start his second season in Formula One. With less than two months to go, he reflected on his learnings from 2023 in a recent interview.

Being arguably the most competitive sport in the world, F1 is not a nice place for rookies. Logan Sargeant recently explained the transition between F2 and F1 is incredibly challenging.

However, Oscar Piastri managed to deal with the pressure and all the challenges quite well and already earned the respect of people down the paddock. Reflecting on his learnings from the previous season, he said through McLaren's official website.

"I certainly learned a lot in my first season right across the board, both on and off track. On track, it was an exciting new challenge for me to race in a new championship with a new team against a lot of new people."

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Coming into F1 from any other motorsport is very tough because the level of competition is much higher. The top drivers in F1 sometimes don't make a single mistake in a whole season - Max Verstappen in 2023 is a great example.

"On track, the biggest challenge and the biggest lesson was learning what new drivers are like to race against, and what these new circuits are like."

The Australian rookie also learned a lot in terms of how to approach fans and how to deal with ever-increasing media attention.

"Off track, it is the added media attention and the fan engagement, which is very different from the junior categories – it’s been exciting. It was challenging at times, but having that support is very exciting."

The lives of F1 drivers are incredibly busy. Not only because of the challenging 24-weekend long calendar but they have ton of other responsibilities like press conferences, interviews, marketing responsibilities and more.

"2023 was, by far, the busiest year of my life. Learning to deal with being on the road for so long has been an interesting challenge. Learning lots of new countries and new circuits has been fun. I gained lots of new skills."

In 2023, Piastri showed great potential, and there are high expectations being set for Australian driving going into 2024.

Formula One World Champion Jenson Button recently said he really looks forward to watching how Piastri compares to his rivals with one year of experience under his belt. What do you expect to see from the 22-year-old this year?