Oscar Piastri addresses F1 title pressure: 'It’s familiar territory'

Oscar Piastri has described the feeling of leading the F1 drivers' championship as “familiar territory”.

McLaren has risen to the forefront of the F1 pecking order this season, winning nine of the 12 races staged so far.

Piastri has triumphed on five of those occasions, aiding his progress to the head of the drivers' standings ahead of team-mate Lando Norris.

The Australian is only in his third campaign, but enjoyed a successful junior career en route to F1.

After winning titles at Formula 3 and Formula 2 level, Piastri insisted that heading the F1 standings holds no different weight.

“It feels pretty familar, to be honest,” Piastri told the media including RacingNews365.

“I think the championships I have won in my junior career have all been in different ways, so I don’t think there’s kind of one way of going about it.

“I’ve learned lessons from every year I’ve gone racing [and] the championships I’ve won as well.

“It doesn’t feel that different in all honesty. I’ve just been trying to keep the same approach.”

With 12 races done and 12 remaining on the schedule, Piastri holds an eight-point lead over Norris.

The 24-year-old acknowledged it is still all to play for in the title battle as the second half of the campaign approaches.

“We’re still quite early in the year so there’s still a lot to go on and a lot to happen,” he said.

“But it feels like pretty familiar territory from where I have been in my career so I’m not really treating it any differently.”