Oscar Piastri hopes his strong body of work during the European season will stand him good stead for the tricky final third of his campaign featuring a swag of tracks he’s never raced on before.
Of the eight remaining circuits on the calendar, Piastri has raced at only Yas Marina, home of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The seven races between now and then, starting with this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, will all be leaps into the unknown, including three tricky sprint weekends in Qatar, Austin and Brazil.
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The 22-year-old Australian has acquitted himself well in his rookie season, having ticked the boxes for his first Q3 appearance and maiden points within the first three rounds despite McLaren opening the year with a badly undercooked car.
He subsequently came close to collecting his maiden podium in Britain and Hungary once the MCL60 received its course-altering upgrade package in July, and he finished second in the Belgian sprint on a treacherous weekend of mixed weather with a breakthrough performance.
Speaking ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix at the start of the long flyaway series of races outside Europe, Piastri said he was optimistic that his 14 races of experience would outweigh the handicap of having to learn his way around new circuits.
“I think there’ll probably be some more ups and downs,” he said. “I think the difference [between now and] the flyaways and new circuits we had at the beginning of the year was I was trying to learn new circuits and the new car as well.
“Whereas now, although we’re still putting new parts on the car, I feel like I‘m much more comfortable in the car and with what I need from it, how to drive it quickly to get the most out of it.
“That‘s always a very comforting aspect no matter which track you go to, so I feel like that aspect is easier.
“Of course I don‘t know the tracks, but I think, compared to European tracks, I’ve got a bit more experience of the car, less experience of the tracks. So we’ll see.”
But the Melburnian was bracing for some tricky tests, especially starting with this round in Singapore.
“This weekend will probably be difficult,” he said. “It‘s a tough track. It’s a new track.
“I would say it probably is [the toughest track I will face this year]. I think the only one that will maybe come close is Vegas, just because it’s completely unknown.
“It’s a very different challenge to most places. Obviously it’s a long race. The lap time compared to the distance is quite long compared to other places. It’s very hot, very humid. It’s at night. We’re on a very strange body clock.
“There are a lot of different challenges that in isolation are difficult, and when you put them all together it’s very, very difficult.
“I’ve been doing quite a lot of training specifically for here. I’ve been in Singapore for three or four days now getting used to the temperature and the climate and stuff.”
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Piastri said manager Mark Webber, two-time Singapore podium-getter, was helping guide his preparation.
“Having Mark in my corner is very helpful,” he said. “Obviously he’s very big on fitness and that side of things, and he’s also got a lot of experience here. He’s been preparing me both mentally and physically for this race.
“We’ve done quite a bit of work specifically around the temperature here and stuff like that. It’s been nice to have Mark in my corner for that specific aspect as well as everything else he does.”
Piastri’s progress that season has validated the significant pre-season hype that surrounded his debut, McLaren having had to fight off a legal challenge from Alpine to secure him on a two-year contract.
The triple junior champion said he felt he was meeting his own expectations as he passed the two-thirds mark of the campaign.
“I think [the season has gone] about how I imagined it,” he said. “I knew there’d be some mistakes, some weekends I’d be unhappy with, some that I would be happier with, which has been the case.
“I think it‘s been about how I expected. I feel like I’ve made maybe a couple more errors than I would have liked and a few moments I wish I could have had again.
“I feel like it‘s been pretty close to how I expected. Of course I always want it to be better and better, but being realistic I think it’s been about how I expected it.”
Having finished with only Lando Norris in the points last time out in Italy, McLaren is hoping for a more productive weekend at the high-downforce Singapore circuit.
Both cars will feature upgrades, though the bulk will appear on Norris’s car, with Piastri’s MCL60 set to return to parity next weekend in Japan.
“I think we should be hopefully a bit better than Monza,” Piastri said. “It depends a little bit. Our strengths are really the high-speed corners — that’s where we really excel. There are no high-seed corners here, but there are also no straights, which is where we struggle.
“Hopefully we’ll be up there. We’ve got some new parts for the car for both of us. Hopefully that will improves us.”