Piastri: Something like a baptism of fire continues

Oscar Piastri compared his debut season in Formula 1 to a “baptism of fire” and called yesterday’s race at Zandvoort, where he earned a few points for 9th place, “insane”. Still, according to him, it is these weekends that are the most instructive and contribute to gaining professional experience.

“Certainly, events on the track were chaotic. Nevertheless, both McLaren cars remained intact and finished in the top ten, so we can say that the day went quite normally – that’s how the young Australian racer summarized the Dutch Grand Prix. – We must assume that we had the opportunity to show better results, moreover, I made a few mistakes, which of course did not help us either.

But all this should teach a lot. For me personally it was a kind of baptism of fire, because during my debut season there were already a lot of crazy races, and all this is part of the process of gaining experience.

Of course I made it harder for myself when I crashed the car during the second practice. But every day this weekend was very educational. Ideally, of course, it wasn’t worth hitting a wall, nor was there any need to figure out what all this would mean for the rest of the weekend, but now I know exactly how it happens.

In general, of course, I would like to do something different, but if we could earn a few points even on such a crazy day, then that would be not too bad. There was a lot to learn in the first part of the season in terms of approach to racing and adapting to the car, but I am already much more comfortable behind the wheel than at the beginning of the year.

But I still make mistakes sometimes, but this is the only way to learn and understand how to act on the track. Sure, in some areas I keep learning, but I think I’m already confident in my abilities and in the car, and I trust the team completely.”