Oscar Piastri believes he has a poor performance at the Miami Grand Prix and says that despite his third consecutive win, there are areas to tackle.
The Australian became the first McLaren driver since Mike Hakkinen in the beginning of 1998 to win three Grand Prix in a row, and was able to do so for the first time in his single-seater career. Piastri was second in the sprint, mainly due to the timing when Safety Cars led the majority of the race, but after winning from fourth on Sunday’s grid, he said it wasn’t one of his better victories.
“I don’t think this weekend was my best, and a lot of it was,” Piastri said. “The race was pretty solid, but I was pretty frustrated with my performance. In the end, yes, I won the race this weekend, but I think it’s pretty unlikely to win the fourth race in many races.
“I did a lot right, but there definitely had some good luck and a very fast car out there, and I don’t want to resort to it every Sunday.
“Obviously, this is an exception to this year’s pace. Yes, we’ve always had strong cars, but the pace we had from the unexpected laps is definitely going to take a performance for us.
Piastri may have proven to be problematic as pole sitter Kimi Antoneri was overtaken at the start of Saturday’s sprint and lined up with the rookie again on Sunday’s second line, but in the end, a key aspect of the race was his immediate clearance of Max Verstappen compared to his teammate Rand Norris.
“To be honest with you, you’ve been so kind to me and didn’t make life that difficult. This is great when someone competes against someone who’s faster and doesn’t make racing more difficult for both of us,” he said. “That was good for him.
“Obviously for Max, I led the race and led another story. But I knew I was expecting it. We knew we had a lot of pace. It was just waiting a little bit of my time, waiting for a while, or making him a moment. That’s what I can do.