Piastri says early success critical for title chase

​Oscar Piastri says last year’s championship success for Max Verstappen proves how important it is to capitalize on early race opportunities, following his victory in the Chinese Grand Prix.

Verstappen won seven of the first 10 races last season but then came under pressure in the second half of the year as both McLaren and Ferrari closed in on Red Bull, with the Dutchman winning just twice in the remaining 14 rounds. Piastri took his first win of the season in impressive style in China, and says he’s not overly focusing on the title picture but is aware of how important early wins could be.

“It’s very, very early, clearly, but I think no matter how short or long the championship is, you need to maximize the car that you have every race,” Piastri said. “I think we saw last year that Verstappen was able to win the championship by capitalizing on the car he had in the first part of the year. He obviously did a good job through the rest of the year as well, but he built the gap when he had the ability to build the gap.

“I think that’s an important thing at the moment as well, because you never know when someone’s going to find some speed with an upgrade or find something in how they operate the car. There are pretty fine margins out there.

“So I think you obviously want to capitalize whenever you can, but I’m certainly not thinking about the championship yet. As much of a cliché as it is, it’s a cliché for a reason: I’m focusing on one weekend at a time because ultimately that is how you win a championship: by getting the most out of every weekend.”

Piastri views his third career victory as the result of a particularly strong weekend after finishing second in the Sprint, because he believes both he and McLaren found a way to exploit the car’s pace after early challenges in Shanghai.

“It’s very satisfying. Obviously it’s always a pretty good day when you cross the line first, that’s obvious, but I think for me this has been the most satisfying –not just race, but weekend — for myself,” he said.

“I think the two wins I had previously were very different, and this one’s been the most complete. So I’m very, very happy with the effort of the whole team this weekend. I think we started with a car that was quick but pretty tricky at times, and I think we did a good job of trying to tackle that. And to come away with this result is a perfect end to the weekend.”