Oscar Piastri admits that the opening laps of the Abu Dhabi GP were “pretty miserable” as he was sent tumbling down the order.
At the start he was knocked into a spin by Max Verstappen, and then as he tried to recover he hit the Williams of Franco Colapinto, and picked up a 10-second penalty.
By the flag he had recovered to 10th place, while victory for Lando Norris guaranteed that McLaren won the World Championship.
“Pretty miserable!“, said Piastri when asked by this writer about the opening laps. “Obviously Turn 1 was what it was. And I think on the restart with Franco, I need to look at it back, I think I just misjudged where everyone was going to brake.
“A lot of moves going on towards the braking zone. And yeah, I just think I got it wrong. So yep, that set me up for a pretty tough race and tough evening.
“But I think in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t really matter at the moment, and just very, very proud of the whole team and what we’ve been able to achieve this year.”
Piastri accepted Verstappen’s apology for the incident.
“I think for me there was no overlap into the corner,” he said. “Max came and apologised, and the penalty speaks for itself. So it is what it is.
“Obviously, at that point, I knew I needed to try and get my way back through. I knew it was going to be going to be tough, but once I had come together with Colapinto that was pretty much the nail on the coffin for my race.
“So not the best way to end off the season for myself, but for the team couldn’t have obviously been any better.
“I’ll definitely ride the high of that and have a good off-season, like I’m sure the rest of the team will, and make sure we come in strong next year.”
Piastri admitted that being part of a title-winning team will take time to process.
“I’m sure it’ll take a little bit to sink in, as my own personal victories often take time to sink in,” he said.
“I think the junior championships I won, it didn’t sink in until sometimes days or weeks later. And I’m sure this is going to be a similar thing.
“I’m sure once we see everybody in the factory, and see the smile on everyone’s face, it’ll really start to sink in. As drivers obviously we have our eyes very firmly set on becoming drivers’ World Champions.
“But it’s also very clear how much the constructors’ championship means. And I think when we get to celebrate that with the hundreds and thousands of people back at back at McLaren, together with Mercedes HPP, that’s when it will really sink in, and the sense of pride will be there.“
