Oscar Piastri

It was kind of, okay, well, things are still going well in the junior ranks, so the next step is F1, and that's a pretty cool place to land.

So I was very realistic early on that the chances of making it happen were going to be small, but...

you know, I guess the saying of, well, somebody's got to do it is very much true.

And I think when you're a kid, it seems very far away.

And that kind of feeling of, you know, someone does have to fill those seats on the grid.

feels incredibly distant and hard to achieve.

But as you get a little bit closer, you go, okay, I can actually be one of the people to do this.

I think so, yes.

Again, I guess I may be a little bit different in that I don't spend that much time thinking about the kind of, or I try not to anyway, about the hypotheticals or, you know, of course I want to become a Formula One world champion, but

I try and look at it from a very realistic point of view.

And, you know, that's a combination of, you know, I need to do my job.

But in this sport, for good or bad, if you don't have the car to achieve it, then you can kind of believe you're going to be F1 world champion all you want.

But if you don't have...

the best car or one of the best cars, then again, you can believe that it's going to happen all you want, but it's probably not going to happen.

So I think for me, that's more where I come from is just that sense of realism.

And I'm a big believer in just trying to do the most with what you've got.

And, you know, take Suzuka this year, for example.

You know, you look at it in the history books in 10 years and say, okay, I finished second and at this point I've won nine F1 races.

But honestly, I would probably put that second place higher in my list of personal achievements than probably 50% of those wins that I've had so far.

Just because I know that I didn't leave anything on the table on that weekend.