After impressing in 2023, his debut year in F1, expectations for Oscar Piastri this season were high, with hopes that he would take another step forward and consistently compete for top positions.
However, Oscar Piastri’s 2024 season has combined flashes of brilliance with more anonymous performances, especially compared to Lando Norris, who, despite some errors, demonstrated greater solidity and consistency in pure performance. One of the key areas requiring improvement for the future is qualifying, where this year Oscar Piastri often complicated his races by failing to deliver a strong final lap or making too many mistakes.
Interestingly, in the Grands Prix where he started ahead, he managed to remain competitive throughout the weekend, even winning races. But in other instances, a lower starting position compromised his race results. This is certainly an area requiring focus, especially considering Norris’s prowess in qualifying, where he often excels by minimizing errors in critical moments.
Nonetheless, Oscar Piastri has undoubtedly progressed compared to last year. While qualifying was his strength in 2023, his real struggle was tire management during races. Often delivering explosive qualifying performances—like his brilliant second place in his first Suzuka weekend— Oscar Piastri’s lack of experience with tire management often saw him fall behind his teammate. This is an area where all drivers must grow, especially when debuting in the category, as learning how to maximize tire performance takes time.
Although Oscar Piastri is not yet the most experienced driver on the grid in this regard, both he and his team are convinced that there has been a significant improvement compared to last season. Even so, Norris has generally been more consistent in tire management, though there have been weekends where Oscar Piastri outperformed his teammate in this area.
“I don’t know if ‘mastery’ is the right word. My tire management has improved a lot compared to my first year, but it’s not perfect yet,” Oscar Piastri told Motorsport.com.
“I think there were two or three races this year where I showed I still need to make progress, even if not to the same extent as last year. It’s still been challenging in that area. However, I believe everything else has improved significantly, like night and day.”
It’s not just about managing the tires but also understanding when to push or maintain a slower pace to avoid overworking them—an ongoing learning process. “I feel much more proactive in knowing what I need to do to manage the tires, which you can only learn the hard way, through experience. So I feel I’ve made significant strides.”
The best way to learn is through experience, and the race itself is the most useful session to try different approaches. During practice, while there is an opportunity to adjust the setup and vary the work, the short stint durations due to time constraints make it hard to truly learn anything. Long runs are mainly used for data collection and helping drivers understand the car’s behavior with a heavy fuel load.
“It’s very difficult to work on this aspect because you can only really do it in the race. You can try to set the foundation during practice, but you never know if it will work, as the laps we do are nowhere near race distance.
“So, some techniques or things you want to try can be tested in practice, but you won’t always get the answers you’re looking for. That can only happen in the race, which is tough and obviously frustrating at times because if you make a mistake, you can’t just restart and try again. Last year, it was a bit frustrating, but I think even here, there’s been good progress.”
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