Oscar Piastri has quickly moved on from his calamitous weekend in Azerbaijan to focus on what success he can find next as he looks to enhance his lead in the world drivers’ standings.
The McLaren driver brought an end to a run of 34 races in the points when he crashed both in qualifying and the race in Baku two weeks ago.
Piastri said that because his mistakes were so blindingly obvious, the lessons were easy to take on board as he prepares for this weekend’s race in Singapore as normal.
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“We don’t want to have weekends like Baku and we know we can’t afford to have weekends like Baku,” Piastri said.
“Certainly from my side of things there was some tough lessons to take but I think as a team we kind of recognised a few opportunities from the weekend to try and improve.
“Baku was quite a good reminder of firstly how quickly everything can change but also on some of the things that have made the season so successful for myself and the team.
“I think just trying to stay focused on that will naturally take care of the championship picture.”
The result in Baku ultimately narrowed his lead over teammate Lando Norris in the world drivers’ standings to 25 points.
With nine races left until the title is decided, fan outrage has began to build as McLaren look to create an equal playing ground for their drivers to battle.
Fan fury reached its peak for the season so far in Monza after McLaren ordered the Australian start to let Norris past after he was delayed by a faulty pit stop.
The decision did benefit the McLaren’s success that day, but Piastri admits it will “always be hard” to balance his own ambitions with the team’s in those moments.
Still, Piastri insists that decisions of that nature have not impacted his relationship with Norris or other members in the McLaren garage.
“It is a difficult sport in that aspect,” he told LiSTNR’s Rusty Garage about McLaren’s work to ensure a fair fight between its two drivers.
“You’ve got a team of over a thousand people, which includes the two drivers, all fighting for the Constructors’ Championships. But then you’ve got two of those people, being the drivers, wanting their own championship inside of that.
“Balancing that is always going to be hard. There’s no ‘correct’ way of going about it; there’s a lot of different ways to go about it, but I don’t think there’s a ‘correct one.’
“Unless you know all the details, it’s incredibly hard to judge or even to understand. A lot of those things stay private for good reasons.
“I get it – to the outside world, not every decision is going to make sense to the people watching. In the team, we’re very at peace that even if it’s not the right decision, the [right] intention is there. If either of us have a problem, we can speak about it.
“That’s a strength of ours. We’re very at peace as a team as to how we manage those things, and that includes myself and Lando.”
Verstappen won his second straight race in Baku and now stands 69 points behind Piastri with seven races left in the season.
Despite Ferrari and Mercedes having been fast at the Marina Bay circuit in the past, Piastri felt the Dutch Red Bull driver would again be the biggest threat to the McLarens on Sunday.
“I think Red Bull and Max will be strong again,” he said.
“Just generally … whenever there’s been really close competition, it’s more often than not been Max.”
McLaren need 13 points from their two drivers on Sunday to secure a second consecutive constructors’ championship.
Additional reporting by Alyssa Bone
