Why Piastri wasn’t completely satisfied despite breakthrough F1 podium

The McLaren driver starred at Suzuka as he qualified second to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, before finishing third behind teammate Lando Norris in Sunday’s race. 

While it marked the impressive F1 rookie’s maiden grand prix podium, Piastri admitted it wasn’t his best performance. 

“It’s special wherever you get a podium. To get the first one, I don’t think it really matters where, it’s always going to be special,” he said. 

“You know, I think for myself, it probably wasn’t my strongest Sunday. So from that side of things, there’s still a few things I want to work on. But no, to get the first podium, on pace as well is a very exciting moment.”

The 22-year-old Australian conceded he “just wasn’t quick enough at certain points of the race” as he ended up losing out to Norris. 

“These high-deg races are probably the biggest thing I need to try and work on at the moment,” he explained. 

“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. 

“So there’s definitely a few things, had I had this race again, that I would have done a bit different.

“But that’s all part of the learning. It’s so exciting to know that we can finish on the podium, even if I feel like there’s more to come.”

Piastri, who has moved up to ninth place in the championship standings, added: “The tyre management and just pace at certain points of the race was not as strong as I would have liked.

“In the first stint it felt like everyone was driving extremely slowly and then when I tried to push a bit more the tyres didn’t really let me go much faster. So there’s a few things to work on there and just pace overall in the races.

“In these kinds of races there’s no easy way to learn apart from just going through the races and having an experience where it’s good or bad. 

“The one-lap pace especially in last few weekends has been a good improvement from the start of the year but definitely, in these kinds of races, the race pace is still an area to improve.”