Ahead of his home Formula 1 race debut, Oscar Piastri revealed that his first appearance on the track came back in 2015, when he was a 'grid-kid' for one of the drivers. The McLaren driver, who is making just his third F1 appearance, shared that he had once appeared as an F1 'grid-kid', who acted as mascots to the drivers ahead of races. "The last time I raced in Australia, I was still in go-karts. I think it was seven years ago now. So it's nice to get out on a racetrack in Oz," Piastri recalled to media. "Yeah, I was here last year as a reserve driver, and I was here, I think, 2015. "I was a grid-kid, actually for Dany Kvyat, so I was holding Dany Kvyat’s flag, and he broke down on the lap-to-grid, so I never actually got to see him! "But yeah, it’s pretty special to have someone holding my flag this time but hopefully I have better luck."
When looking ahead to the Melbourne race, Piastri was enthused by his qualifying efforts in Saudi Arabia, but admitted that he hoped to "do things differently" to avoid incidents and improve his chances of points. "I think qualifying especially gave me a lot of confidence in the way that we're working is the right way," added Piastri. "I think I didn't really change that much from Bahrain, but the results in Qualifying were much different, getting to Q3 this time. It was a nice confidence boost. "Sunday, obviously it was nice to see the end, at least. I think on the first lap I probably could have done a few things differently and maybe kept myself out of trouble a bit better, but I think the rest of the race, it's nice to get a race distance under my belt at least, and definitely some learning and getting rid of some of the rust still."
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