Piastri: I hope we get the chance to fight for victories

At the end of last season, Oscar Piastri was recognized as Rookie of the Year and received a special FIA award – he received the same award a few years ago when competing in Formula 2.

“I am very proud of this! – the McLaren driver admitted in an interview on the championship’s official website. – Although of course I have set myself more serious goals than becoming the rookie of the year, but it is still nice to receive such recognition. Certainly, my debut season went well, although I still have some work to do. Still, in the second half of the year I had many opportunities to show what I am capable of.

My first points in Formula 1 came in Melbourne, in my home race, and that brought a kind of relief, as we were not at all confident that we would be able to finish in the top ten in the first half of the season. Therefore, the points for 8th place in the Australian Grand Prix were a particularly important result, especially because I earned them in my hometown.

My first real chance to get on the podium was at Silverstone, but missing it made me think: will there be more opportunities like this? That’s why I was very happy when I finished third in Japan, and this of course became another major highlight of the season. But I consider the Qatar Grand Prix to be the best weekend of the year.

I then won Saturday’s sprint, and although this is not a Grand Prix, it is also a race, so I am also proud of this achievement. And on Sunday, after taking 2nd place in the Grand Prix, I thought this was the first weekend where we managed to get the best possible results.

We immediately built a good working relationship with Lando Norris, my teammate, starting with the pre-season testing. Of course we are not developing the car, but he and I have given the McLaren engineers much the same information about the MCL60’s behavior on the track. If we could at least slightly influence the modernization of the car, we tried to ensure that it went in the right direction.

Of course, we got to know each other a lot better this year and we both enjoyed competing on the track.

Also, during the year I had to get used to the popularity of Formula 1 drivers – I think it is impossible to prepare for this. Of course, you can specifically study how to behave when communicating with the press. But if people start to recognize you on the street, want to get an autograph or take a selfie, then you just have to take that into account and pay attention to it.

I would be happy to sign autographs to anyone who wants to, but we have to keep in mind that our busy schedule during the weekend is literally per minute. Ultimately, without fans there would be no motorsport. I hope I have found the right approach for this aspect of our work.”

Oscar also listed the people from the world of Formula 1 who he considered and still considers to be his heroes at different times of his career: “Growing up, I followed the achievements of Mark Webber, because when I got involved in the Formula 1, he was at the peak of his career, he played for Red Bull and won races. Plus, he was the only Australian driver in the championship, and of course I became his fan.

Lewis Hamilton has achieved impressive results in the fifteen years of his career, but what Max Verstappen is doing now is of course also impressive, although we are now trying to compete with him on the track. And in 2022 it was very useful to work with Fernando Alonso. You can say that I learned a lot then and that this collaboration opened my eyes to a lot.

If we talk about people who participated in Formula 1 before I was born, these are of course Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. They had different approaches and driving styles, but I try to pay attention to the positive aspects and learn a little from everyone if possible.”

When Oscar was asked to share his prediction for 2024, he cringed and said, “I hate making predictions. But I hope we will have the opportunity to fight for victories more than once. Of course I hope that will be the case.”