Oscar Piastri has insisted that he is not in a position where he can consider “banking points” over chasing race victories in his Formula 1 title battle with Lando Norris.
Piastri heads into the remaining 10 rounds – beginning with next weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix – with a mere nine-point lead at the summit over his McLaren team-mate.
The Australian’s cushion had been as high as 22 points when Norris clashed with him late in Canada and retired, but the Briton has rebounded well since that setback.
Norris won three times in four races in the build-up to the summer break to ensure that Piastri is not in a situation where he can be cautious and play the percentages.
McLaren’s stance has remained unchanged when it comes to letting Norris and Piastri race, providing the two avoid incidents that are detrimental to the team’s result.
But with both drivers in the running to win the Drivers’ Championship, Piastri revealed that there has been a small change to McLaren’s racing rules compared to 2024.
“I think there’s definitely been some changes. Even still now it’s too early to kind of just bank points and finish races for the sake of finishing races,” he told Autosport.
“You still need to try and put your best foot forward and score points. Obviously now in the Drivers’ Championship it’s very much a two-horse race, so there is kind of some one-on-one racing in some ways, which is probably a little bit of a change from what we’ve done previously.
“But a lot of what we’ve done previously has been to try and win Constructors’ Championship, and get the team the most points.
“When you’re fighting for first and second, you’re still getting the same amount of points.
“So there’s probably a few changes with that, but a lot of the rules of engagement and the general philosophy of how we go racing is still very much the same.”
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Piastri, who has attained six victories to date in his third campaign, expressed that he subscribes to the cliche that the best approach is to take each race as it comes.
“I think the saying of ‘taking it race by race’, it sounds boring and kind of is boring in some ways, but it is very true,” he contended.
“You can’t worry about what’s going to happen in Abu Dhabi and take your focus off what you’re doing in the weekend, especially at the top of Formula 1.
“You’ve got to be on top of your game every single time and any focus you take away from that, it means you’re not at the top of your game.
“So as cliched as it is, it is genuinely about focusing on the race you’re in, trying to score the most amount of points.
“You could say I need 18 points every weekend for the rest of the year, which is finishing second, but if you’ve got a clear opportunity to win the race and you don’t take it, that’s not a great way of going racing in my opinion.
“So that’s how I always try and look at it. And that’s what I based my whole career off basically, leaving each weekend knowing that I’ve done the absolute maximum I can.
“Whether that looks like finishing fifth, whether it’s finishing second, whether it’s winning the race, ultimately trying to be happy with the performance I’ve put in, that’s all you can ask for.”
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