The phlegmatic young Australian adopted an optimistic face in Shanghai on Thursday as he reflected that he'd still been able to learn quite a bit from simply watching his home grand prix last weekend after crashing out in a reconnaissance lap just before the race.
Piastri believes he and his McLaren team have learned enough from the first race in Formula One's much-changed 2026 world to be more competitive this weekend, even if they're making no wild predictions about overhauling a mightily strong-looking Mercedes team that opened the season with a dominant one-two.
"I think we learned, after qualifying especially and in the days since, that we didn't necessarily optimise what we had in Melbourne," mused Piastri, who had out-qualified his teammate, world champion Lando Norris, before Sunday's pre-race calamity.
"Throughout practice, the picture looked a lot more optimistic - I think overly optimistic at points - but it was a surprise for us to lose so much competitiveness from Friday to Saturday.
"I think we've got a pretty good understanding of why now, so I think we can get closer.
"We still think we're going to have a deficit to Mercedes, but I think we identified a lot of things we can do better."
Mentally, Piastri, third in last year's championship, is up for the fight again, just as after last year's Australian GP when he followed up his mistake near the end of the race that cost him a podium by rebounding with victory in Shanghai the following Sunday.
"It was relatively quick to put that behind me - obviously, it's one I try to forget - but having a race this weekend is always nice, and there's still plenty to focus on," he said.
"I'm fine, ready to get back into it. Obviously it's certainly not going to be my favourite moment of my career, but I think I still tried to learn as much as I could from the race.
"There's definitely positives to take in amongst last weekend, but even though it's a lot more embarrassing this year, I'm only two points worse off than I was at this point 12 months ago."
