Little changes for Piastri after Dutch delight

After delivering a grand blow in the F1 title tussle at Zandvoort, the mindset has not changed for Oscar Piastri.

Piastri holds a strong position at the top of the F1 World Championship, sitting 34 points ahead of Lando Norris as attention turns to Monza for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

The McLaren #81 driver is flying high after producing the first Grand Slam by an Australian driver since Sir Jack Brabham’s 1966 British Grand Prix victory.

With Norris retiring following an engine oil line failure, Piastri is in the box seat, but with nine races still to go, anything can happen and the Brighton Boy knows it.

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As a result, his mindset has not changed one bit as his experience of winning the Renault Eurocup, F3 and F2 titles on the bounce proves it’s never over until the end.

“I don’t think much will change,” Piastri said. 

“He’s certainly not out of the fight. Yes, it’s a bit more difficult now, but I don’t expect much to change. 

“Do you think we’ll race each other the same way? Do you think the amount of risk-taking will be the same? 

“We’re both trying to drive as fast as we can, it’s not like we’ve been holding anything back from that side of things, so I don’t expect anything to change.

“I’ve had one of my own championships, I’ve had a much bigger gap than this and had it pretty much erased before the final round. 

“I’ve got personal experience of this not being a comfortable gap, but it’s still far too early to be calculating and settling for positions that aren’t first.

“For me, the approach is still exactly the same. That won’t change until the gap is pretty significantly bigger or the amount of races is significantly smaller.

“I like to think that my approach to risk is pretty measured, so for me, that doesn’t really change regardless of the championship situation.”

In the aftermath of Zandvoort, where the McLaren garage experienced conflicting emotions, the team hinted that the likes of Zak Brown and Andrea Stella would discuss the situation with their drivers.

Piastri believes how the team and Norris have handled the fallout from Zandvoort as well as they could have.

“We’ve spoken about it a little bit. I don’t think it’s a discussion,” Piastri said of McLaren’s chat about the championship situation. 

“It’s certainly not at the top of our list of important things, but I think we’re just trying to get a feel of what we would like. 

“Obviously, for one of us it’s going to be a pretty amazing time and for the other it’s going to be pretty painful, and I think the team and Zac are just very sensitive to that, which is nice.

“We’ve spoken about it a little bit, but I don’t think it really needs much more conversation.

“He (Norris) handled it as well as you can handle that situation, I think. It’s never nice, but at the same time you know there’s nothing you can do about it from your side.

“Obviously, it’s a shame and it could have easily happened to me as well, but ultimately that’s not really up for the heat now. 

“The team’s reacted very well in terms of trying to diagnose the problem and rectifying or actioning things to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“I think from that side it’s been as good a response as it could be and it has been a long time since we’ve had a mechanical problem or a race-ending mechanical problem, so I think across the board it’s been handled very well.”

Tonight, the Italian Grand Prix begins at Monza, where Piastri made a massive statement by passing Norris around the outside last year.

2025 Italian Grand Prix

FP1 – Friday 21.30-22.30

FP2 – Saturday 1.00-2.00

FP3 – Saturday 20.30-21.30

Qualifying – Sunday 0.00-1.00

Grand Prix – Sunday 23.00

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