Oscar Piastri makes 'whole life' remark as title fight intensifies

Oscar Piastri has recognised his season has not "been perfect", but acknowledged there have been very few weekends of complete perfection across his "whole life".

The McLaren driver leads the F1 drivers' title by nine points over team-mate Lando Norris going into the summer shutdown, with 10 races remaining. 

Piastri has been the strongest driver of the season so far, boasting the best average qualifying result and average race finish result. 

This season, the Australian has averaged a qualifying result of 2.14, whilst his average race result is 2.4. To add to his accolades, no driver has won more races than Piastri this season, whilst only Norris can match his 12 podiums. 

However, his advantage over the Briton has decreased over recent rounds, due to Norris having won three of the last four races since the duo clashed in Canada. 

Piastri came close to defeating the 25-year-old in Hungary, although failed to find a way past in the closing laps despite a significant tyre advantage. 

Whilst Norris is the driver in form, many pundits back Piastri to seal a maiden drivers' title in the final 10 races. The 24-year-old himself is also confident he can get the job done.

"I have a lot of confidence in myself that I can do it," Piastri told media ahead of Hungary. 

"Not every weekend has been perfect, but there's not many weekends in my whole life that have been perfect. 

"Just trying to put together a solid, consistent year is ultimately going to be important. The pace in the last few weekends, especially Spa, I've been very confident in and very proud of. 

"I'm more than capable of continuing that for the rest of the year. I'm confident that I can do it, but it's not going to be easy."