Oscar Piastri is not worried about the difficulties faced by Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren, despite his lack of experience racing in Formula 1. The Australian spoke for the first time as an official McLaren driver since the high profile contract saga with Alpine last year, in which the French outfit mis-managed his contract situation during his time as a reserve driver. Having seen his compatriot Ricciardo struggle to perform in his second year with the team, Piastri says he is "not concerned" citing his ascension through the junior ranks in different cars throughout his career. "It's obviously a shame that things didn't work out between the team and Daniel. But I think for me, personally, I'm not concerned about that aspect of things," Piastri told media, including RacingNews365.com . "Through my unique career I've had to change car every single year, I've never driven the same car for more than a year. "So I think adaptation is a big strength that you need in the junior categories, and I think that's been prominent in mine."
Piastri: Time a good healer after contract saga
Piastri has already generated a reputation for himself after the contract saga with Alpine, with the Australian's tweet denying that he would be driving for the team reaching over 300,000 likes. RacingNews365.com exclusively revealed the failings from Alpine and why the Contract Recognition Board sided with McLaren . Given the high-profile nature of the case, he comes into the season feeling upbeat and without it weighing on his mind. He said: "I think going into the season I'm pretty comfortable. I think once all the facts came out, and the full story came out, it became much more clear to most people. "So that's not weighing on my mind. I'm fully focused on being at McLaren and I think the time is a good healer for most things."
Number one advice 'not to underestimate challenge of F1'
Piastri's manager Mark Webber has already spoken about how it will take time for him to "get used to the F1 juggernaut" and coping with the demands. The rookie echoed these thoughts when asked about the best piece of advice he had been given ahead of his full-time debut. "There's been a lot of advice from Mark," he explained. "To sum it [the advice] up, it's to not underestimate the challenge of F1. It's obviously a big step up from what I've raced previously and also it's a different dynamic racing in a sport where its my first year getting paid to drive race cars - which is pretty cool! "That's a different dynamic to what I'm used to and there's a lot more people in the team now, maybe 700 or 800 people here at McLaren, as opposed to 30 that I had in Formula 2. "So just being prepared has been the number one piece of advice."
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