{"id":33513,"date":"2025-05-06T14:39:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T18:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=33513"},"modified":"2025-05-06T14:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T18:39:32","slug":"alain-prost-praises-oscar-piastri-for-mental-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/06\/alain-prost-praises-oscar-piastri-for-mental-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Alain Prost praises Oscar Piastri for mental approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a costly mistake in round one at Australia, Oscar Piastri<\/a> has recovered impressively to claim the Championship lead.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old has claimed four victories out of six races, making a clear step forward from the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

As they battle at the front, Piastri and teammate Lando Norris<\/a> are naturally the subject of plenty of comparison in F1 circles.<\/p>\n

According to 4-time Champion Alain Prost, the Australian has the right approach to the mental demands of Formula 1.<\/p>\n

Piastri shows impressive evolution in 2025<\/h2>\n

Few drivers experience the kind of turbulence that Oscar Piastri did in the summer of 2022, prior to even making his F1 debut.<\/p>\n

The Australian had signed a contract with McLaren<\/a> in June, to make his debut with the team in 2023.<\/p>\n

However, Fernando Alonso’s Alpine exit (which shocked the French team) resulted in Alpine trying to secure Piastri’s signature.<\/p>\n

They announced his “promotion” in August, despite Piastri already having a deal in place with McLaren.<\/p>\n

Whilst the details of this saga are now in the past, they serve as a reminder of how highly regarded Piastri was in junior categories.<\/p>\n

Having won Formula 3 and Formula 2 consecutively, it is hardly a surprise he was such hot property.<\/p>\n

After two seasons of Norris<\/a> enjoying an edge in performance, Piastri has taken a notable step forward in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Oscar Piastri in Miami. (Photo by Sam Bagnall\/Sutton Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though a few mistakes in qualifying have cost him Pole Position on a few occasions, his race pace and tyre management are significantly stronger than previous years.<\/p>\n

Piastri does well to minimise stress, says Prost<\/h4>\n

Now a genuine contender for this year’s title, there is no shortage of analysis about the the 24-year-old’s trajectory.<\/p>\n

Alain Prost’s assessment is that Piastri has the correct approach to navigating the stressful F1 environment:<\/p>\n

“Motor racing is obviously played out on the track,” <\/em>he wrote on l’equipe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Reflexes and the natural talent of drivers are obviously essential. <\/em><\/p>\n

“But motor racing is also played out in the mind. Psychology is a crucial element. <\/em><\/p>\n

“It already was in my day, but social media has made it even more crucial to a driver’s success. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Now, everything is shown, everything is experienced, everything is known. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Many drivers succumb to this trend of sharing. <\/em><\/p>\n

“I think that by doing this, they put an insane amount of pressure on themselves. Others choose to remain discreet, in my opinion rightly so. <\/em><\/p>\n

“The new Championship leader, Oscar Piastri, hardly communicates. <\/em><\/p>\n

“We don’t know much about his life off the track. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Naturally reserved, the Australian disappears between races and frees himself from this pressure.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Race winner Oscar Piastri of Australia in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A long way to go<\/h4>\n

Of course, it would be premature to declare any driver as Champion at such an early stage in the season.<\/p>\n

Norris is only 16 points behind Piastri in the Championship, and will certainly have intentions of reversing the deficit.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappe<\/a>n, meanwhile, could quickly catapult himself into contention if Red Bull can unlock more performance on the RB21.<\/p>\n

The FIA’s flexi-wing technical directive<\/a> in Spain could also hamper McLaren’s pace – though this remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Regardless, it cannot be said that anything is certain with eighteen rounds sill left in 2025.<\/p>\n

What seems relatively clear, however, is that Piastri is far better equipped to fight for the title than he was twelve months ago.<\/p>\n

The #81 driver will also take confidence from his wheel-to-wheel engagements with Verstappen, which have generally been successful.<\/p>\n

His relaxed and level-headed personality is perfectly tailored to the kind of scrutiny that comes with being Championship leader.<\/p>\n

Beyond this cool exterior, of course, is a killer instinct and determination that is becoming increasingly apparent.<\/p>\n

Piastri has announced himself as a force to be reckoned with – the challenge now is continuing to improve and cementing his advantage in the title race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a costly mistake in round one at Australia, Oscar Piastri has recovered impressively to claim the Championship lead. The 24-year-old has claimed four victories out of six races, making a clear step forward from the last two seasons. As they battle at the front, Piastri and teammate Lando Norris are naturally the subject of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":33515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,2494,66,2323,2398,2526],"class_list":["post-33513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-mcl39","tag-mclaren","tag-norris","tag-piastri","tag-prost"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33513"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33535,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33513\/revisions\/33535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}