{"id":106708,"date":"2025-08-30T01:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T01:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/106708\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T01:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T01:23:12","slug":"oscar-piastri-cuts-out-the-noise-in-pursuit-of-f1-world-title-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/106708\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri cuts out the noise in pursuit of F1 world title \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri is still what might be considered a stripling. His soft features are unweathered by age and competition, yet he also possesses an undoubted inner steel. The young Australian<\/a> is in a two-horse race to be Formula One<\/a> world champion this year. His youth, personable nature and easy, dry wit belie a driver possessed of exceptional maturity and the clinical execution familiar in the sport\u2019s greats.<\/p>\n

Piastri has given every indication he could join them and the resolute determination of the man who would be king is palpable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have emotions, I still feel everything that everyone else feels. It\u2019s just that, being blunt, I think a lot of emotions are not that helpful,\u201d he says with candour.<\/p>\n

Such an admission may be considered a little shocking from many 24-year-olds, but it is an integral part of what has propelled Piastri to a two-way title fight with his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris. Piastri currently leads by nine points going into this weekend\u2019s Dutch<\/a> Grand Prix after a tight fight marked by his calmness, where he has reacted to setbacks and victories in much the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any point dwelling on anything longer than you have to,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s important sometimes to get that frustration out, to celebrate, to do whatever, but just because you won last weekend or just because you lost last weekend doesn\u2019t mean that the same thing is going to happen this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season, only his third in F1, has been revelatory. It has been marked by his even-handed approach and a ruthless, consistent delivery that has combined to bring him six wins and six podiums in 14 races. After a spin in the wet in the season-opener at Melbourne, an error he promptly consigned to the dustbin of history, Piastri has delivered with pretty much impeccable precision.<\/p>\n

\"McLarenMcLaren driver Oscar Piastri during practice on Friday ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort. Photograph: Mark Thompson\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

His race engineer, Tom Stallard, the former Olympic rowing silver medallist, has described him as notable for being both \u201ccalm and intense\u201d. The architect of McLaren\u2019s success, team principal Andrea Stella, summed up his strengths after a dominant win in Bahrain earlier this season by aptly noting: \u201cNo hesitations, no inaccuracies, everything that was available he capitalised on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri\u2019s attitude might be considered somewhat cold-blooded. As a person, he is clearly not cold-blooded, but his strategy is highly effective. It is an approach that sport psychologists would recognise, but it seems one honed by circumstance as he single-handedly pursued his career having moved to the UK when he was 14. His father, Chris, was with him for six months, before returning to Australia and after which Piastri looked after himself.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Lando Norris holds off Oscar Piastri in McLaren one-two at Hungarian GPOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely been a lot of lessons through experiences . . . there\u2019s a lot of tough moments in there,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously the challenges of just going racing but then there\u2019s the challenges of moving from home. Learning how to navigate life alongside racing, being far away from your family and friends, which I\u2019m sure has moulded me to some degree as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had any dramatic life experiences in my childhood but even just little things of having to make decisions for yourself and problem-solve. Once I learned to control things, [and] I could control and not worry about everything else in life, it probably naturally translated to racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was on display in Baku last year when Piastri gave a masterclass of driving control under enormous pressure. Having taken the lead from Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc, he then defended it for 30 laps as the Monegasque driver ducked and dived and all but hurled himself at the Australian\u2019s gearbox. To no avail as Piastri took his second and still perhaps the best win of his career. His reaction to Stallard was a simple, unflustered exclamation of \u201cYes!\u201d over the radio as he took the flag.<\/p>\n

There is depth here too. Piastri is a thoughtful character and slowly considers a response when asked how he assesses himself and his approach. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously all the work that goes on behind the scenes of how to actually drive a race car fast,\u201d he says. \u201cBut an important thing is always kind of dissociating the results of a weekend from how I felt I performed.<\/p>\n

\"OscarOscar Piastri (left) celebrates his victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix in April with McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who finished third. Photograph: Clive Rose\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s been races I\u2019ve won this year or in my career that I would probably rank as worse performances than races I\u2019ve finished fourth or fifth. Just getting myself in the right mindset, essentially being quite calm, quite relaxed is what I think I need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comparisons, then, have unsurprisingly been made between Piastri and Alain Prost \u2013 \u201cThe Professor\u201d \u2013 and they are valid on many levels. The Australian is a measured perfectionist on track in the mould of the four-time champion Frenchman. He also has a similarly calculating and considered air. Ten race meetings remain in the run-in, each of which could be vital in the title fight. Much as Piastri knows it, he remains unconcerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is going to naturally be tension,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s naturally going to be pressure and emotions from that but it doesn\u2019t necessarily weigh heavily on me. I\u2019m honestly just more excited. If I was not in a championship fight, I\u2019d be trying to attack things the same way. Obviously the tension around the position we\u2019re in is naturally going to be higher but I\u2019d be trying to do the same thing regardless of where I am in the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

His laid-back public persona is engaging and likable and has struck a chord with F1\u2019s new generation of young, enthusiastic fans, a demographic in which Norris too shares a similar popularity. One of them will be champion and the pair have, unusually, remained friendly even as they are going head-to-head this season. But will it last?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s obviously going to be tension at points, ultimately we\u2019re fighting for something that we\u2019ve both dreamed of since we were kids,\u201d says Piastri. \u201cBut our relationship is honestly probably stronger than it has been from the start. There\u2019s obviously going to be a loser to this championship and that\u2019s going to be not that pleasant for whoever that is, but however this championship goes it\u2019s been a good fight already and I think there\u2019ll be a lot of respect both ways.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri is still what might be considered a stripling. His soft features are unweathered by age and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,580,577,82],"class_list":["post-106708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula-one","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}