Australian Oscar Piastri entered the history books on Sunday as the first rookie F1 driver since Lance Stroll in 2017 to finish on the podium.
Although an early slip-up threatened to derail the 22-year-old’s hopes of capitalising on a P2 result in qualifying, with Piastri admitting he got “a bit excited” at the start of the race.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Piastri still said he had plenty of room for improvement after lacking pace compared to teammate Lando Norris, who finished the Japanese Grand Prix in second behind Max Verstappen.
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Norris though was able to get an early jump on Piastri after a defensive Verstappen moved right to cover the Australian, opening up a window for his teammate to pass him.
“I got a really good launch and then, in all honesty, I got a bit excited with the throttle pedal and the second phase I just had far too much wheel spin and that’s where I kind of lost that ground to Max again and Lando clearly had the best start of the three of us by a fair bit,” Piastri said.
“Tried my best and then it was pretty tight anyway, I wasn’t far enough alongside and realistically even if I got in front of Max it wouldn’t have been for long. I’m just happy I managed to settle into third and in the end that was all the pace we had for the day.”
As admitted by Piastri himself, the Australian lacked pace compared to Norris, prompting McLaren to reverse the order on track.
“I think we did everything very sensibly,” Piastri said.
“I think clearly I didn’t have the same pace as Lando today… some things to work on in terms of race pace for me but these kind of high-deg[redation] races are the main focus and it’s very hard to improve on them without actually doing the races.
“Trying to learn as much as I can but for now I’ll enjoy the podium.”
There was one nervous moment though for Piastri earlier in the race when a virtual safety car was announced.
It ended up being an advantage for the Australian, who just had pitted before the announcement, although there was still the risk of a full safety car being deployed.
“I knew the VSC had come out. I had no idea what had happened so I was praying it didn’t go to a full safety car,” Piastri said.
“But a very good move from the team to do that. A little bit nervous at one point but overall a very good move.”
Piastri of course was denied his first podium finish earlier in the year at the Hungarian Grand Prix after a safety car was deployed.
This time around though nothing could stop the rookie driver, who later overtook George Russell in a move that teammate Norris described as “beautiful”.
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“It feels very special, definitely. I’ll remember it for a very, very long time,” Piastri said after the race.
“I can’t thank the team enough for giving me this opportunity. There’s not many people in the world that get this opportunity in their whole life and I’ve managed to have it in my first season.
“Thank you very much to the team. It wasn’t my best race ever but it was enough to get a trophy at the end, so [I’m] super happy.”
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