Oscar Piastri says he fought arduous for fifth place within the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix and restricted the injury within the drivers’ championship, however is having to study to drive his McLaren otherwise.
Lando Norris dominated in Mexico, successful by over 30 seconds from Charles Leclerc having began from pole place. Piastri, in contrast, was over half a second off his teammate in qualifying however improved from seventh on the grid to complete fifth, and says the extra essential final result will probably be if he has addressed some areas that helped extract extra from the automobile.
“There was plenty of battle,” Piastri informed Sky Sports activities. “The entire race I used to be proper behind somebody and combating soiled air, in order that was fairly tough.
“For me, the most important factor is attempting to study the issues I wish to study. [In qualifying] it turned apparent after the session that there have been just a few issues I needed to change fairly majorly in the way in which I used to be driving. If I’ve made some progress with that I will probably be blissful, however clearly, when your teammate wins the race, ending fifth is nothing that extravagant.”
Given a scarcity of upgrades from McLaren within the latter a part of the season, Piastri admits it’s been difficult to know why he wants to maneuver away from a driving type that had labored so nicely for thus lengthy this yr.
“I believe I’ve needed to drive very otherwise within the final couple of weeks. That is been a bit of bit unusual to get my head round,” he mentioned. “I’ve been driving precisely the identical all yr – however the final couple of weekends the automobile, the tires or one thing has required fairly a special approach of driving. I’ve simply probably not gone to that. I attempted just a few issues altering it up and as soon as we analyze whether or not that is been efficient or not hopefully we’ll see some progress.
“The automobile has not modified for some time now, so it’s nothing to do with the automobile. Given how the tempo has differentiated final couple of races, clearly Lando has discovered it simpler to dial into that and I have not.
“I believe you will need to keep in mind for the opposite 19 races the way in which I have been driving has been working fairly nicely… It’s about including instruments to the toolbox somewhat than re-inventing myself.”
