Oscar Piastri Reflects on Tyre Management Progress in F1

Oscar Piastri believes his ability to manage tyres in Formula 1 has made significant strides since his 2023 rookie season, describing the improvement as “night-and-day.” While Piastri impressed in his debut year, tyre management was a key area of criticism with his race pace often dropping off compared to teammate Lando Norris. Over the course of 2023, Piastri made notable progress but his biggest leap came during the winter break, resulting in much closer performance between the two McLaren drivers in 2024.

However, Piastri admitted that he has not yet “mastered” tyre management. Despite the improvements, there were still a few races in 2024 where managing the Pirelli tyres proved challenging, though the issues were not as severe as in 2023. He shared that his approach to tyre management is now much more proactive, a shift driven by experience that, though challenging, has been essential for his development.

Piastri acknowledged that although practice sessions allow experimentation, the short stint lengths make it hard to gain deep insights into tyre management. It was only through real race conditions that he could truly learn the limits of the tyres and the lessons learned during a painful rookie season have laid the foundation for improvement. He admitted that it was frustrating at times to make mistakes in races, but these experiences were vital for his development.

Reflecting on his progress, Oscar Piastri is now more confident in his tyre management skills and is eager to continue building on this foundation. While Norris retains a slight advantage in race pace, Piastri is optimistic about further refining his skills moving forward.