Jenson Button admits 22-year-old F1 driver needs to be more consistent in 2024

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Jenson Button has told McLaren star Oscar Piastri that he needs to be more consistent in 2024 if he wants to challenge teammate Lando Norris.

McLaren are expected to be one of the closest teams to Red Bull this year after their miraculous turnaround last season.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Jenson Button admitted he was seriously impressed with Oscar Piastri during his rookie year, but he needs to be more consistent going forward.

The 22-year-old was phenomenal last year, managing to win the Sprint Race in Qatar and finishing on the podium in Lusail and Japan.

Zak Brown described him as ‘mega fast’ after his first year in Formula 1 and there were no signs of rustiness after spending a year as Alpine’s reserve driver in 2022.

Even rival team boss Christian Horner admitted he was really impressed by the Australian who Eddie Jordan has tipped to have Max Verstappen looking over his shoulder one day.

Button has now told Piastri that he needs to improve his consistency in 2024.

He was at a distinct disadvantage compared to his teammate and almost every other driver on the grid last year.

Piastri was turning up to tracks that he had never driven at before and had just three practice sessions – or where there were Sprint Races just one – and being expected to keep up with the rest of the field.

To be fair to him, Qatar was one of those tracks and he’ll be desperate to head back there as quickly as possible.

Button tells Piastri to improve consistency in 2024

Speaking about the 22-year-old, Button said: “But in terms of the young guns at McLaren, super strong.

“Oscar [Piastri] with a year under his belt, he’ll have more consistency going into the 2024 season. He had glimpses of greatness [in 2023] obviously but then consistency just wasn’t there, I think he ended up with less than half the points of Lando [Norris] (97 vs 205).

“But coming into a second season he’s got that under his belt, I think he’ll be competitive. So those two drivers will definitely push McLaren forward a bit as well.”

Button knows all about driving for McLaren and he’ll be hoping Piastri and Lando Norris can kick on in 2024 and take the team back to where it belongs challenging for titles.

It’s going to be interesting to see which team closes the gap to Red Bull the most over the winter.

Given the progress they made last season, there will be confidence in the Woking-based team that they’re on the right development path.

All eyes are going to be on pre-season testing in Bahrain which is only a month away.