Piastri highlights 'critical changes' to follow in bid to repeat best performances

13:03, 07 Feb

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byKada Sarkozi

Oscar Piastri aims to focus on the 'critical' changes heading into the 2026 Formula 1 season.

"I think I've proven to myself once now that I can do that."

- Oscar Piastri

After leading the championship during large parts of the season, Piastri eventually finished third in the drivers’ standings behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

The Australian explained that over his first few seasons in the competition, he has managed to learn how to put entire weekends together.

Speaking to a select group of media, including GPblog, he explained: "I think last year, for me, it was more about putting a lot of the learnings and kind of tools, if you want to call it that, from my first two years in F1 together, much more often.

"I think if you looked at my rookie season in 2023, qualifying was probably what was better than a lot of my races. 2024 was kind of the opposite and 2025 I feel like the majority of the time I was able to be strong in both critical areas of the weekend.

"So I think from that side of things trying to repeat that is obviously the aim and I think I've proven to myself once now that I can do that."

Piastri in the pits - Barcelona shakedown

Photo: McLaren

Moving forward, the 24-year-old will focus on applying that to this year's car and addressing the 'critical' changes.

He added: "I think it's now just how do you apply that to very different cars and very different regulations that's the biggest thing.

"So yes, I think we've got a good kind of baseline or blueprint of how to make effective changes it's now just identifying what those critical changes are going to be for this year which we kind of got a first read on in Barcelona and we'll definitely develop more next week in Bahrain," Piastri concluded.