Alain Prost spoke of his admiration for Formula 1 championship leader Oscar Piastri during this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, and the Australian says it was “very cool” for a four-time champion to be so effusive in his praise.
Prost and Piastri previously worked together at Alpine, where the Frenchman was an advisor and non-executive director, while Piastri was part of the team’s junior academy.
Having championed Piastri, Prost stated that the eight-time race winner exhibited traits similar to his own, while speaking to Karun Chandhok at Goodwood: “I like the way he behaves. It’s a little bit like me, thinking about when to do the right manoeuvre for overtaking and being a little bit more clever.”
When the quote was put to Piastri by Motorsport.com, he responded that it was “very cool” and agreed that some of Prost’s comparison was accurate – although felt F1’s evolution since Prost’s days in the championship had changed the execution of that approach.
“It’s very cool coming from Alain. I’ve had that comparison from a few people with Prost. I see it in some ways,” Piastri said.
Alain Prost, McLaren
Photo by: Jakob Ebrey / LAT Images via Getty Images
“I think it’s very different, obviously back in the day there were a lot more reliability concerns, a lot more kind of driver-induced reliability issues as well.
“So I think in some ways it’s quite different, but the mentality in some ways it’s the same, trying to be consistent.”
Piastri added that it was important to manage risk to ensure he didn’t lose too many points when going for victory, but explained in the same interview that it was beneficial to avoid trying to over-calculate points in the championship.
The Melbourne native is currently nine points clear of team-mate Lando Norris, the gap having shrunk as the Briton won three of the last four races. Two of them were arguably at Piastri’s expense; the championship leader’s penalty at Silverstone and Norris’ one-stop gamble at Hungary brought the two closer together in the standings.
“When you’re fighting for first and second, it’s a seven-point difference, but if you don’t finish the race, it’s potentially 18 or 25 points you lose,” Piastri added.
“So you do still have to make sure you finish the races, be consistent and not take unnecessary risks. And I think that side of things is still the same, but probably the reasoning for it is quite different.
“The mentality is probably pretty similar, which I’d say has worked pretty well in the past.”
Watch: Oscar Piastri Exclusive: From Rookie to F1 Title Contender in His Own Words
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