Oscar Piastri shares the biggest differences between driving in Formula 1 and Formula 2

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McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has described the main differences between Formula 1 and Formula 2.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Piastri was talking after the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Australian youngster is currently the only rookie on the grid to have scored points this season.

Oscar Piastri won the Formula 2 championship in 2021 before becoming Alpine’s test driver.

The expectation was that he would take Fernando Alonso’s seat when he joined Aston Martin.

However, McLaren swooped in and brought in the young Australian to replace his fellow countryman Daniel Ricciardo.

He’s not been given the quickest car this season, however, he’s impressed many on the grid so far.

Piastri has now been asked about the main differences between driving in Formula 1 and other series.

He’s only eight races into his F1 career but appears to have adapted well already.

The 22-year-old isn’t quite keeping up with Lando Norris just yet but isn’t too far behind.

Piastri explains main differences between Formula 1 and Formula 2

Asked to compare the two series, Piastri said: “Everything but the driving aspects is honestly the biggest difference.

“The driving is the most similar part, it’s a bit quicker.

“The media commitments, the partner commitments, there’s basically none of that in F2.

“In F2, most of the media time you do is when things are going well and partner commitments, there’s not really any.

“Especially with a team like McLaren that’s a very different story, we’ve got a lot of great partners onboard which requires a lot of commitments.

“That’s probably the biggest difference and then the calendar as well.

“My F2 season I had was eight rounds, and we’re already supposed to have done eight rounds and it’s June.

“It’s much more busy from that aspect, spending more time at the factory, more time with the engineers, working with more people, that’s the other biggest difference.

“The F2 team I was with maybe had 30 people and in F1 I probably have 30 people working on my car on a race weekend, and then there’s 800, 900 people back at the factory building the car.

“A big step up from that aspect, but it’s just a completely different league in everything except for the driving.

“And even the driving, it’s the best drivers in the world so that’s certainly not an easy part either.”

Piastri will hope he can improve McLaren’s outlook this season as they sit comfortably in sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

A decent gap has already opened up to Alpine in fifth, while the cars in the bottom half struggle to record top-ten finishes.

All it would take is one freak result for one of the bottom teams to jump ahead of McLaren.

One of the main differences Piastri didn’t mention in Formula 1 is the gulf between the teams compared to F2.

Although there are still stronger teams, it’s rare to see the championship dominated the way it is right now by Red Bull and Max Verstappen.