Oscar Piastri has detailed the lessons he has learned in the wake of his first lap disaster at the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Australian World Championship leader’s Baku weekend was abruptly curtailed on Lap 1 after an uncharacteristic error which saw him plant his McLaren into the barriers at Turn 5.
Piastri’s weekend had quite literally hit a wall on Saturday, after crashing early in Q3, which left him starting ninth on the grid.
And after bogging down after a jump start at lights out, Piastri sunk to the back of the field, before his crashing out.
Piastri’s title lead was reduced by a small amount by team-mate Lando Norris, leaving him with a 25-point lead going into this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Speaking ahead of the race, Piastri acknowledged that similar incidents and poor weekends by McLaren cannot happen again if he is to take his first Drivers’ title.
“We don’t want to have weekends like Baku and we know we can’t afford to have weekends like Baku,” Piastri told media including Motorsport Week.
“Certainly from my side of things there was some tough lessons to take but I think as a team we kind of recognised a few opportunities from the weekend to try and improve. So that’s always an important thing.
“Baku was quite a good reminder of firstly how quickly everything can change but also on some of the things that have made the season so successful for myself and the team.
“So I think just trying to stay focused on that will naturally take care of the championship picture.”
‘Nothing revolutionary’ in how Piastri has coped with Azerbaijan GP shunt
With two weeks to rumenate on the situation, Piastri was asked how he has dealt with what was an incident so unlike his usual cool, calm and unflappable driving.
“There’s some lessons about how I can deal with that better and just lessons on risk I guess is the best way to put it,” he explained. “There’s nothing revolutionary that I think needs to change or that I am going to change.
“For 16 of the 17 weekends what I’ve been doing has worked very well. If I make sure I stay focused on the things that have gone well then it will continue to go that way. Nothing revolutionary. I’m just putting it down to some mistakes.”
Piastri appears to be back to his usual self, revealing he has been able to put the incident to the back of his mind.
“I think it was relatively easy to move on from actually,” he stressed. “I think in some ways because the mistakes were so obvious, you leave every weekend trying to find how you can improve. But there’s some weekends, normally the ones that go well, where it’s a bit more difficult to find where it’s possible to improve.
“But also if you don’t have a clear idea of where things went wrong then often the hardest part is finding where to start.
“I think when the mistakes and the consequences are so obvious it’s quite easy to find where to look. I think the reflection on that has been pretty straightforward and I feel comfortable coming back in now.
“I certainly haven’t had to dwell on it too much, the lessons are there but I’ve been able to move on from it quickly and just approach this weekend like any other weekend.”
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