Yesterday at 06:30
Oscar Piastri has recognised his season has not "been perfect", but
acknowledged there have been very few weekends of complete
perfection across his "whole life". The McLaren driver leads the F1
drivers' title by nine points over team-mate Lando Norris going
into the summer shutdown, with 10 races remaining. Piastri has
been the strongest driver of the season so far, boasting the best
average qualifying result and average race finish result. This
season, the Australian has averaged a qualifying result of 2.14,
whilst his average race result is 2.4. To add to his accolades, no
driver has won more races than Piastri this season, whilst only
Norris can match his 12 podiums. However, his advantage over the
Briton has decreased over recent rounds, due to Norris having won
three of the last four races since the duo clashed in Canada.
Piastri came close to defeating the 25-year-old in Hungary,
although failed to find a way past in the closing laps despite a
significant tyre advantage. Whilst Norris is the driver in form,
many pundits back Piastri to seal a maiden drivers' title in the
final 10 races. The 24-year-old himself is also confident he can
get the job done. "I have a lot of confidence in myself that I can
do it," Piastri told media ahead of Hungary. "Not every weekend
has been perfect, but there's not many weekends in my whole life
that have been perfect. "Just trying to put together a solid,
consistent year is ultimately going to be important. The pace in
the last few weekends, especially Spa, I've been very confident in
and very proud of. "I'm more than capable of continuing that for
the rest of the year. I'm confident that I can do it, but it's not
going to be easy."
