Oscar Piastri channels his inner Nietzsche, as he insists that his recent run of tough races has actually helped him.

Having previously admitted that the team orders debacle at Monza affected his subsequent performances, most notably the disaster that was Baku, Oscar Piastri has opened up further on his recent slump.

"I think Austin and Mexico were quite different to the other races that have not gone so successfully," he told reporters in Las Vegas. "I think there was a clear pace deficit and something pretty fundamental that just wasn't working.

"I think the other races have just been a combination of different things going wrong," he continued. "Baku was what it was, Singapore from a performance standpoint actually was pretty solid, just the race obviously didn't pan out exactly how I wanted, and I think even Brazil... the pace was good at points. I think the Sprint crash didn't have a great impact on the rest of the weekend either.

"There were some things resulting from that that were suboptimal for the rest of the weekend, so I think from a pace performance point of view, I think Brazil was actually quite good. It was just that there was a lot of things that happened that meant the results weren't on the table.

"So, for me it's not been kind of, yes there's been a string of races that have not gone very well, but I don't think they've been along the same lines. "I think Austin and Mexico were, but the other races the performance has been there, but there's just been something going wrong, whether it be a mistake or a crash or something else going wrong. There's just been things that have hampered the results.

"I don't mean to look at it as kind of an it's all been going wrong for the same reason what's happened," he insisted. "There's a couple of races where, yes, I needed to do some head scratching and work out what was going on, but the other races that have been tough, just been what some might say is a difficult world of motorsport.

"The first half of the season was incredibly strong," he said. "Yes, there's been a couple of races that have been learning experiences, but there's also been a lot of moments that have been just kind of difficult to go through. But I think I've learned something from each of those moments. No matter how tough that has been, there's been something that's helped me in the future from all those events.

"So, would I have liked the results to have been better? Yes, of course," he admitted, "but there's going to be bumps along the road, not everything is going to be perfect. And ultimately I think trying to learn lessons and not just set myself up for this season, I want to try and obviously win at any opportunity I get for the rest of my career. And sometimes some of these tough pills to swallow are a part of trying to make that happen."

OK, Nietzsche actually claimed that "what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger", but you get the picture.