Piastri: After the tests, the neck hurt quite a bit

Oscar Piastri is preparing for his debut in Formula 1 and we wrote about his first visit to the McLaren base in Woking. He was introduced to the team and at the same time spoke to the press service and spoke about his approach to working on tests, having already driven McLaren cars in November, both in Abu Dhabi and in private tests in Barcelona.

At the Catalan circuit, Piastri drove last year’s MCL35M, it was at the beginning of the week, and he completed 150 laps in two days.

Oscar Piastri: “We’ve done a lot and I feel like I’ve made good progress. We came back to some racing topics that I hadn’t touched on in a while, and I learned a lot about different steering techniques.

It was quite cold and we even worked a bit on the wet track – overall I adapted to all this and tried to absorb as much information as possible. I was able to restore many skills, because they are a bit boring.

After the tests, the neck hurt quite a bit, but it always takes some getting used to the Formula 1 car. But I’m slowly getting back into shape, working on it and continuing to train actively over the Christmas break.

After leaving Formula 2 (Piastri became champion of the youth series in 2021), my goal has always been to get into F1, and all the tests I have driven Formula 1 cars in have always been part of the preparation for this , and my mental attitude has never changed.

But now I can work with those engineers and with the team that I will be working with next year, and this is very important to me because it helps to build the necessary relationships. Now that I’ve secured a place at McLaren and am back racing, we can focus on certain aspects of the race preparation as the season is just around the corner.”

Tom Stallard was appointed as Piastri’s race engineer and was impressed with the Australian’s attitude: “He was remarkably calm and composed and showed real maturity. Oscar quickly adapted and we were impressed with how well he handled the handling, how he adjusted the braking and cornering technique to fully exploit the car’s speed potential.

He’s made a lot of progress and I think he now understands what it takes to get behind the wheel of this car.”

After the tests and a visit to the McLaren base, Oscar will return to his homeland, to Australia, where he will spend the winter holidays, but will continue to train there so that he can return to work with renewed vigor in January. And pre-season testing will be held in Bahrain at the end of February.