I have all tools to challenge for F1 title, now I need to deploy them

Oscar Piastri believes he has all the tools he needs to compete for the Formula 1 world championship but has conceded he now must “deploy them all the time”. 

Australian Piastri earned his first grand prix victories as part of the McLaren effort that saw the team clinch a first constructors’ championship since 1998. 

But the former F2 and F3 champion finished the year 82 points behind team-mate Lando Norris and 145 behind eventual title winner Max Verstappen – the gaps leading to the McLaren duo and the team coming under scrutiny over its team orders procedures. 

Yet, having shown marked improvement between his rookie season and sophomore year, Piastri could well enter the discussion for the drivers’ title next term. 

Asked if he believed he could be a title challenger, Piastri told AS/MS: “I think so, yes. I’ve still got some learning and improving to do.

“I feel like now I’m getting to a stage where on certain days I feel like I have almost all the tools that I need. I’m just not putting them together as much as I want to and I feel like last year I didn’t have all the tools that I needed. I had some of them, but I still was missing some.  

“I feel like now this year, if I don’t have all of them, I certainly have a lot more – and whether that’s race pace, qualifying, racing other people, I feel like I’ve shown good moments of that, or even in some of those areas. I’ve just been generally very happy across the board.”

On how racing at the top of the grid changes the perception of his performances, Piastri added: “Just putting it all together a bit more is, I think, what’s going to be needed. So now that you’re at the front, you get exposed for anything that you can’t do perfectly more than what you would being a bit further back in the pack.

“But I feel like I have all the tools I need. I just need to be able to deploy them all the time.”