Piastri has not changed approach despite lack of 'overall prize'

Oscar Piastri says his Formula 1 approach is the same as in junior categories despite the "overall prize" of wins not being possible.

Piastri made his Grand Prix debut in Bahrain, having claimed the 2020 Formula 3 and then 2021 Formula 2 titles in a rise that marked him out as a future star.

However, McLaren are not currently in a position to fight for wins or poles, with the MCL60 proving a tricky car, although the Australian scored his first points at home in Melbourne with eighth place.

Despite this readjustment needing to be made, Piastri believes that, while the headline results might not be achievable, his mindset has not changed.

Piastri's mindset

"I mean, compared to last year, it's a very different mindset anyway, just driving again," he explained when asked by RacingNews365.com if his mindset had changed in anyway fighting in the midfield as opposed to at the head of the field, while referring to his year off from racing in 2022 after a seat could not be found for him by then-employers Alpine.

"But the philosophy and the way of working is still very similar, it's just instead of targeting race wins and pole positions, in this case, you're targeting Q2, Q3 or points.

"So while the overall prize is less than what it would have been in the junior categories for myself, the effort and way of working and everything is still exactly the same.

"That doesn't change and, for me, I obviously don't know any different in Formula 1.

"I'm just still very grateful that I am driving as opposed to watching, so from that mindset point of view, it's quite easy to stay motivated.

"But every driver, or 99% of us come in having won stuff in the junior categories, so I think it's similar for everyone. The way of working is still very similar."

Working with an Olympian

Piastri's race engineer at McLaren is Tom Stallard, who has worked with Jenson Button, Stoffel Vandoorne, Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo.

Stallard is also an Olympic Silver medalist from the 2008 Beijing Summer games in the Men's Eight event, while also winning the University Boat Race for Cambridge.

Piastri says the relationship with Stallard is developing well, with just "small things" to maybe change.

"We've been working together really well, and he's got a lot of experience in F1 and in elite level sport as well," Piastri said.

"With more race weekends, we're getting to know each other's style better and better and we did a lot of work before the season to make sure we're speaking the same language and working on the same wavelength.

"We did a very good job of that, and there's some things that you just don't find out about each other until you're under the pump in qualifying or the race.

"But it has been really good, not any complaints, I think there's just small little things that we could change, but on the whole, it has been really good."