I would sacrifice a win to help Lando Norris in the title fight, but only if McLaren asks for it.

If McLaren has a car capable of winning races again next season, he believes he will push Norris to the end. “I certainly hope so,” he says, sitting in a McLaren motorhome in the Interlagos paddock. “I’m definitely improving. I think I’ve been pretty good for most of this year. Now it’s more a matter of putting things in order.”

Such as? “I think last year I had some pretty fundamental things that I needed to work on and improve on, like tire management. This year I feel like I’ve taken a huge step forward in that regard. But there are still little things. For example, my qualification did not go as well as I would have liked. I made a lot of the races a little more difficult for myself than I wanted because I had to overcome adversity.

“Those tenths, hundredths, thousandths… given how tight the field is in front, can make the difference between being on pole or being on the second or third row of the grid.”

Another area where Piastri feels he still has some reserve is experience. He says it’s no coincidence that his best results this year have been achieved on the European circuits he knows well.

“There are a few other routes, for example China, where I was for the first time,” he says. “The others, which I’m coming to for the second time, I’ve made a big step forward compared to last season. But I still need a few more (visits) to get to where I want to be.

“I think the tracks are more familiar to me, although, as in Europe, I was overall pleased with my performance.”

So we have a lot of untapped potential? “I think so. Maybe not many. But some. Enough.”

“I’ve heard some people call me the new Kimi”

The way Piastri carries himself—seriously, earnestly—isn’t to everyone’s taste. They point to some of the grid’s most colorful characters, some of them even younger than Piastri, and suggest that the 23-year-old is, for lack of a better word, a little boring. Piastri makes no apologies for who he is. Nor should it. After two seasons, he’s becoming increasingly confident in himself, and there’s clearly character there.

“I’ve heard some people call me the new Kimi,” he says, referring to former driver Kimi Raikkonen.

Is he referring to the Finn’s monosyllabic interview style, or perhaps he is referring to his penchant for vodka partying? “Ha ha, yes, the last one,” he says. “No, I’m probably not a particularly expressive person. But I think in some ways it makes me stronger when I show this side of me.

“I think I try to have my own personality in my own way. I hope this goes away. But I want the main thing to be my success and what I do on the track, not jokes.”

If Piastri is successful on track over the next four race weekends, it could go a long way towards Norris securing his first Formula 1 title; and McLaren – their first constructor’s crown in a quarter of a century.

Norris’s deficit of 47 points with four race weekends remaining is daunting. But Piastri, whose mistake in Q1 last weekend saw him start from the back of the field in Mexico, can help by squeezing himself between Norris and Verstappen wherever possible, making the Dutch driver’s job a little more difficult. Or even get out of Norris’s way if asked to do so.