Oscar Piastri fought for a fifth place at the Mexico City Grand Prix, minimizing damage in the drivers’ championship, but says he must learn to drive McLaren differently.
Lando Norris showed overwhelming strength in Mexico, winning by over 30 seconds over Charles Leclerc who started from pole position. In contrast, Piastri moved up from seventh on the grid to finish fifth, despite losing more than half a second to his teammate in qualifying, and said the more important result was whether he was able to address some areas that helped him get more out of the car.
“There was a lot of fighting,” Piastri told Sky Sports. “It was pretty tough because I was right behind someone the whole race and I was fighting the dirty air.
“The most important thing for me is to try to learn what I want to learn. It became clear after the session (in qualifying) that there were some things I had to change quite drastically in the way I drove. It would be nice to make some progress on that, but obviously finishing fifth is not that luxury when your teammate wins the race.”
Given the lack of upgrades from McLaren in the second half of the season, Piastri admitted it was difficult to see why he needed to move away from the driving style that has served him well for so long this year.
“I think I’ve had to drive quite differently the last few weeks. It’s been a little weird to have my mind racing,” he said. “I’ve been driving exactly the same way all year, but in the last few weekends the car, the tires, or something has demanded a completely different way of driving. I’m not quite there yet. I’ve tried changing things up a bit, but I hope we’ll see some progress once we analyze whether it’s been effective or not.”
“It has nothing to do with the car because the car hasn’t changed for a while. Given the difference in pace in the last few races, obviously it was easier for Lando to adjust to that, but it wasn’t for me.”
“I think it’s important to remember that with the remaining 19 races, the way I drive is working very well… It’s important to add tools to the toolbox rather than reinventing myself.”
