Oscar Piastri has acquired a reputation for keeping cool under pressure, but don’t call him “Ice Boy.”
The Australian, leading the Formula 1 championship for dominant McLaren, was offered the nickname after taking pole position with a mighty lap in the heat of qualifying for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
A reporter suggested Piastri could be the progeny of Finnish “Iceman” Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion for Ferrari, such was his nonchalant attitude.
“I’m not sure I want to go under the name ‘Ice Boy,'” replied the Australian, raising a laugh from others in the room.
“I think the emotions are different each time. Certainly, there’s been qualifyings and races where it’s not been nonchalant and there’s been a lot of emotion behind them.
“But then there’s others where you go out and you know that if you do a good enough job, you can achieve the result you want.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s incredibly satisfying, but I think I’m just not a particularly emotional person. That’s just how I am, really.”
Piastri added that he could have his emotional moments but he also knew that Saturday was only part of the job done and the real celebrating could wait until after Sunday’s race.
The 24-year-old, born in Melbourne and schooled in England, has won four of the eight races this season and Saturday was his fourth pole of the campaign.
He is three points clear of teammate Lando Norris, who won from pole in Monaco last Sunday to close the gap, but has shown no sign of feeling the pressure.
“It’s a nice thing to have, starting on pole, but it’s not the end of the weekend. The points are tomorrow. After the races, it depends a bit on the race,” said Piastri.
“If you’ve had a battle with someone the whole race and then you win, then yeah, you’re pretty pumped up. But if you’ve got a bit of a gap, then you kind of know with a few laps to go that it’s going to go your way, and then it doesn’t spill over so much.”
Source: espn.com