Alain Prost spoke of his admiration for Components 1 championship chief Oscar Piastri throughout this 12 months’s Goodwood Competition of Velocity, and the Australian says it was “very cool” for a four-time champion to be so effusive in his reward.
Prost and Piastri beforehand labored collectively at Alpine, the place the Frenchman was an advisor and non-executive director, whereas Piastri was a part of the workforce’s junior academy.
Having championed Piastri, Prost said that the eight-time race winner exhibited traits just like his personal, whereas talking to Karun Chandhok at Goodwood: “I like the way in which he behaves. It is a bit bit like me, enthusiastic about when to do the proper manoeuvre for overtaking and being a bit bit extra intelligent.”
When the quote was put to Piastri by Motorsport.com, he responded that it was “very cool” and agreed that a few of Prost’s comparability was correct – though felt F1’s evolution since Prost’s days within the championship had modified the execution of that strategy.
“It’s extremely cool coming from Alain. I’ve had that comparability from a number of individuals with Prost. I see it in some methods,” Piastri stated.
Alain Prost, McLaren
Photograph by: Jakob Ebrey / LAT Photos by way of Getty Photos
“I believe it’s extremely completely different, clearly again within the day there have been much more reliability issues, much more form of driver-induced reliability points as properly.
“So I believe in some methods it is fairly completely different, however the mentality in some methods it is the identical, attempting to be constant.”
Piastri added that it was essential to handle threat to make sure he did not lose too many factors when going for victory, however defined in the identical interview that it was helpful to keep away from attempting to over-calculate factors within the championship.
The Melbourne native is at present 9 factors away from team-mate Lando Norris, the hole having shrunk because the Briton gained three of the final 4 races. Two of them had been arguably at Piastri’s expense; the championship chief’s penalty at Silverstone and Norris’ one-stop gamble at Hungary introduced the 2 nearer collectively within the standings.
“Whenever you’re preventing for first and second, it is a seven-point distinction, however for those who do not end the race, it is doubtlessly 18 or 25 factors you lose,” Piastri added.
“So that you do nonetheless need to be sure you end the races, be constant and never take pointless dangers. And I believe that facet of issues continues to be the identical, however in all probability the reasoning for it’s fairly completely different.
“The mentality might be fairly related, which I would say has labored fairly properly previously.”
Watch: Oscar Piastri Unique: From Rookie to F1 Title Contender in His Personal Phrases
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