Oscar Piastri reckons his potential to handle tyres in Formulation 1 has undergone a “night-and-day” enchancment over his 2023 rookie season, however feels there may be nonetheless room to develop additional.
Though Piastri impressed in his debut F1 season final 12 months, the primary criticisms of his maiden season concerned his lack of expertise with managing the Pirelli tyres by a race distance – which normally led to a race tempo drop-off versus Lando Norris.
This had improved over the course of 2023, though the Australian’s largest step in race stint administration arguably came to visit the winter and thus the 2 McLaren drivers had been way more evenly matched over 2024.
Norris nonetheless retained a slight higher hand when it got here to total race tempo, main Piastri to counsel that tyre administration was nonetheless but to be mastered after his second season.
“I do not know if ‘mastered it’ is the phrase I might use. It is a lot improved however not mastered,” Piastri defined to Autosport.
“I believe there’s been two or three races this 12 months the place it is nonetheless been – to not the identical extent as final 12 months, however nonetheless been difficult on that entrance, however I believe it has been a night-and-day enchancment in all places else.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Staff
Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Photos
“So I really feel like I do know way more proactively what I have to do to handle the tyres now, which you form of need to be taught the laborious means, by expertise, which could possibly be fairly painful. So I really feel like I’ve made actually huge enhancements there.”
Piastri revealed that though apply allowed the drivers to experiment, the stint lengths had been so brief that it was unattainable to achieve significant expertise of tyre administration past the races.
He stated that, having taken ‘painful’ classes by 2023 in understanding the bounds of the Pirelli tyre, he was now glad to have taken the hit in his rookie season to put the foundations for the longer term.
“It’s totally tough [to work on] as a result of you’ll be able to solely do it within the races. I imply, you’ll be able to attempt to do it in apply and put the constructing blocks in,” he added.
“However in apply you by no means fairly know if it will work or not, as a result of clearly the runs we do are nowhere close to a race distance.
“So a number of the strategies you should utilize and a number of the belongings you need to apply, you’ll be able to apply, however they do not all the time provide the clear solutions that you simply’re after. Solely the races can try this.
“So it is just about attempting it within the races, which may be very tough and clearly very painful at occasions, as a result of should you get it incorrect, you clearly cannot simply push restart and take a look at once more. That is the race consequence.
“And yeah, that was a bit irritating at occasions final 12 months, however I really feel like, once more, it has been enchancment to this season, so I am glad to have gone by these experiences.”
On this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Formulation 1
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
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