What F1 title leader Oscar Piastri has learned from his Baku disaster

Oscar Piastri has admitted he “can’t afford” to repeat his disastrous Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend if he wants to win this year’s world championship.

F1 title leader Piastri endured his worst weekend of the season in Baku as he crashed out on a nightmare first lap that also saw him jump the start and fall to the very back of the field.

The Australian has seen his championship lead trimmed down to 25 points with seven rounds remaining as McLaren teammate and chief title rival Lando Norris could only take seventh, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is 69 points behind after claiming back-to-back wins.

"We don't want to have weekends like Baku and we know we can't afford to have weekends like Baku,” Piastri told reporters ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.

"Certainly from my side of things there was some tough lessons to take but I think as a team we kind of recognised a few opportunities from the weekend to try and improve. So that's always an important thing.

"Baku was quite a good reminder of firstly how quickly everything can change but also on some of the things that have made the season so successful for myself and the team.

“So I think just trying to stay focused on that will naturally take care of the championship picture.”

Oscar Piastri won’t ‘dwell’ on errors

Piastri said he learned valuable “lessons on risk” during his uncharacteristically sloppy weekend in Baku.

"There's some lessons about how I can deal with that better and just lessons on risk I guess is the best way to put it. There's nothing revolutionary that I think needs to change or that I am going to change,” Piastri said.

"For 16 of the 17 weekends what I've been doing has worked very well. If I make sure I stay focused on the things that have gone well then it will continue to go that way. Nothing revolutionary. I'm just putting it down to some mistakes.”

Piastri insisted he has found it relatively easy to move on from his mistakes.

"I think it was relatively easy to move on from actually,” he stressed. “I think in some ways because the mistakes were so obvious, you leave every weekend trying to find how you can improve. But there's some weekends, normally the ones that go well, where it's a bit more difficult to find where it's possible to improve.

"But also if you don't have a clear idea of where things went wrong then often the hardest part is finding where to start. I think when the mistakes and the consequences are so obvious it's quite easy to find where to look. I think the reflection on that has been pretty straightforward and I feel comfortable coming back in now.

"I certainly haven't had to dwell on it too much, the lessons are there but I've been able to move on from it quickly and just approach this weekend like any other weekend."