Oscar Piastri now admits to his ‘mistakes’ in McLaren rookie F1 season

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Oscar Piastri admits that hindsight makes it ‘very easy’ for the Australian racer to see what ‘mistakes’ he has made in his debut season at McLaren and rookie F1 campaign.

The 22-year-old is just 12 Grands Prix into his Formula 1 career after joining McLaren for the 2023 season. Piastri made the bold decision last summer to walk away from the Alpine team to replace Daniel Ricciardo in papaya. But it is now paying out after McLaren’s recent results.

Missed development targets saw McLaren start the year with a slow car and hinder Piastri’s attempts to demonstrate his potential. The 2020 Formula 3 and 2021 Formula 2 champion’s first nine rounds of the campaign only returned five points across two point-scoring finishes.

McLaren’s upgrades let Oscar Piastri show his true potential

Piastri put his first points on the board on home soil after finishing this April’s Australian GP in eighth. The Melbourne native only qualified in 16th place but kept it clean around Albert Park. Although seeing eight drivers fail to finish the race did help Piastri climb up the order.

Another point would not follow before the Monaco GP in May when Piastri qualified in 11th and finished in 10th. He edged ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in the closing stages after the Japanese tumbled down the grid. Results then improved when F1 arrived at Silverstone.

McLaren finally giving Piastri their upgrades at the British GP saw the Australian catapult his way into the headlines. The Woking outfit’s work put in to address the MCL60’s deficiencies saw the Australian claim third on the grid and even challenge for second in the early stages.

Oscar Piastri admits to his ‘mistakes’ in his rookie F1 season

The safety car intervention handing Lewis Hamilton a cheap pit stop ensured the Mercedes legend beat Piastri for the podium. But the rookie responded at the Hungarian GP to qualify fourth. He then qualified second for the Belgian GP Sprint and secured a first top-two finish.

Yet looking back over the first half of his rookie F1 season, Piastri admits that there are a few ‘mistakes’ that the McLaren driver would love the chance to go back to correct. Even though he had not raced anything for 15 months before making his Formula 1 bow with a tough car.

“I’m very happy where I am,” Piastri said of his results at F1’s summer break, via quotes by Motosport.com. “I think my season’s been quite good for the most part.

“I think there’s definitely been some mistakes or moments I wish I could have had again. But with hindsight, it’s very easy to say those kinds of things.

“I’m happy with where I’m at driving-wise. There’s still a lot to improve, a lot to learn. I’ve got a very strong teammate to learn from [in Lando Norris], who just by being a benchmark is a big help for me getting back up to speed. So, yeah, I’m happy where I am.”

A gearbox issue forced Piastri to retire 12 laps into his F1 debut with McLaren at the Bahrain GP. While contact with Pierre Gasly at the start of the Saudi Arabian GP forced the Australian to pit for a new front wing. Contact with Carlos Sainz also ended his Belgian GP on lap one.