Piastri secured the first podium of his F1 career with third at last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, joining team-mate Lando Norris on the rostrum, but admitted after the race that it was not his finest performance.
Reflecting on why he felt that way, the Australian rookie explained that, on a day when there was a need to heavily manage the tyres, he did not think he had done a good enough job.
“I just wasn't quick enough at certain points of the race, I think,” Piastri said.
”These high-deg races are probably the biggest thing I need to try and work on at the moment. I think it's still quite fresh for me, obviously.
“In all the junior racing before this there are no races like this. So, the only way you can learn from it is by just doing the races.”
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella agreed that being able to master handling tyre degradation in F1 was very much about learning on the job, as there was no other way that drivers could experience the nuances and techniques required.
“I think when it comes to race pace, it's not like you learn race pace, and it is a set of skills that then you deploy for every race,” he said.
“Race pace in a race like [Japan] with high degradation, the car bouncing a little bit in some places, with high speed, low speed management, is applicable to today. But this doesn't mean that it was the same in Hungary, or it was the same somewhere else.
Source: Autosport