Piastri on McLaren culture: 'Nice to have something like this'

Oscar Piastri is grateful for the culture at McLaren. He tells speedcafe.com that it has played a big part in his development. The team is also so pleased that it has given the driver a new contract until 2026.

“From the moment I joined the team, I felt there was a very good culture that was very welcoming to me,” says the 22-year-old Australian. He continued: “Even when times were tough, everyone was still very motivated to try and improve the situation, whether that was people in the race team, people in the design office, whoever it may be, they were always still optimistic.''

Confident

“The confidence that we could turn it around was nice to see. There were a few question marks when we first put the upgrades on the car in Austria and Silverstone, and whether it would give us the kind of gains we were hoping for – and they did,'' said the rookie. When asked what culture meant to him, he indicated it was simple things: ''Like the friendliness of the team.''

A team

The McLaren team works nicely together, according to Piastri: “In F1, and in motorsport in general, you have the potential to have a divide on the two sides of the garage, and that’s definitely not the case here. We all work together as one team, trying to help each other, starting with Lando and myself trying to help each other, to all the engineers and mechanics.'' According to Piastri, the culture is so good that he went for a game of tennis with team boss Andrea Stella between the Mexico and Brazil GPs: ''It's always nice to have those things'' Who won at tennis, he doesn't like to admit: ''We didn’t play a game, we just rallied – but Andrea definitely won!”