Oscar Piastri names 'most complete' weekend of incredible rookie season

Piastri wint rookie of the year-award — Photo: © LAT Images

F1 News & Gossip

Piastri names 'most complete' weekend of incredible rookie season

The McLaren youngster was speaking at the conclusion of his maiden campaign

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Sunday 10 December 2023 21:57

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Oscar Piastri has named the British Grand Prix as the 'most complete' weekend of his rookie season, despite winning the sprint race and coming second in the feature race in Qatar.

The Australian was speaking to F1.com about his debut campaign, arguably the best since Lewis Hamilton entered the sport in 2007.

Piastri put up 97 points to finish ninth in the championship, but those numbers understate just how strong his performances were from Silverstone onwards, when McLaren gave him the upgrades Lando Norris had benefitted from at the previous race in Austria.

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Those upgrades immediately catapulted Piastri into podium contention, with only a poorly timed safety car preventing him from beating Hamilton and claiming his first F1 hardware.

Oscar Piastri was in the spotlight at the British Grand Prix

Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris had a number of on-track battles this season

Oscar Piastri's Qatar Grand Prix weekend was also one to remember

Piastri: I was feeling the love at Silverstone

Asked if he felt fans' expectations of him rising after that result, Piastri said: “I would say it was big… I was feeling the love that weekend definitely.

“It was definitely my – I still think to be honest – it was probably my most complete weekend, or one of the two, for the year. I was very happy with it.

“Personally, I think also it being the team’s home race, we had a lot of support in the crowd. Both me and Lando were performing well that weekend so I was certainly feeling the love from the crowd, from the media – not that I'd really paid that much attention to the media side of things.

“But it's always nice to have people saying good things about you I guess. That was really the first weekend where it picked up and also the first weekend where I went, ‘that was a solid weekend that I feel like I got the most out of myself’.”