I’ve learned a lot about myself, says Piastri

Oscar Piastri says that the lessons learned this year will help him as he moves forward.

Having provided the only memorable move of the evening – and even that was orchestrated – the Australian knew, despite the incessant hype from various commentators, that it was a lost cause, the championship had been lost a long time ago… that’s assuming winning it was ever in the script.

At the end of the day, Piastri crossed the line 12.5s behind Max Verstappen, to finish third in a championship he had previously appeared set to win.

“We gave it everything,” he told reporters at race end. “We tried a gamble on strategy, tried absolutely everything to try and win the race and give ourselves the best chance to win the championship, but ultimately we didn’t have the pace today.

“It’s been a fun challenge, I think,” he added. “Obviously at certain points maybe it doesn’t feel that fun,” he admitted, “but I think it’s been a really enjoyable season for both of us probably, and I’m saying that as the person who is not champion.”

Elsewhere, teammate, Lando Norris claimed that he has learned from Piastri, as he has from previous teammates, Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo.

“I’m glad I’ve had Oscar,” said the new world champion, “you know, the last three years because even though, he’s still a lot newer to it than me, I’ve learned a lot from him. And he showed me up at many times and I’ve managed to learn a lot from him.”

“I’ve learned plenty of things along the way,” said Piastri, when told of Norris’ comment. “Even in the last three years I’ve learned things every weekend from what Lando does and it’s nice to know it goes both ways.

“There’s plenty more years to come of intense weekends and tight battles,” he continued, “but ultimately I think that’s made both of us better drivers and I think some ways contributed to the success both of us have had this year.”

Ignoring the dubious strategic calls that appeared to favour his teammate, there was the disqualification in Las Vegas, not to mention the own goal that was Qatar.

“When things have been good this year I’ve felt unstoppable at points,” said Piastri. “To even be able to get to that point is a pretty cool feeling to have.

“There’s been plenty of times when that’s not been the case and I think I’ve learned a lot of lessons on how to deal with tough moments, adversity from different directions, so ultimately I’ve learned a lot about myself.

“I’ve obviously been in championship battles before in the junior categories but in F1 it’s got a little bit extra to it, so I’ve learned plenty about that this year and that will only help me going forward.”

As for that first lap ‘overtake’, which, while ostensibly giving Piastri a shot at the title, was clearly more about putting Norris out of danger and in his very own comfort zone, Andrea Stella admitted: “We did discuss it.

“First of all, we discussed even more than usual that we obviously wanted to have absolutely clean racing in the first lap,” he explained. “But we also discussed that with Oscar on the hard tyre, not making life difficult for Oscar.

“To take the second place and then try and attack Verstappen was a strategic option that Lando was supportive of. So it was a good and fair overtaking by Oscar. But in itself, this is a scenario that we discussed, so it wasn’t the hardest of the battles, because there was a general interest from this point of view.”

Check out our Sunday gallery from Yas Marina here.