After the outcry from back home about McLaren being biased in favour of their British world champion Lando Norris, Piastri was adamant he'd been given a "fair shot" by the UK-based team.
Saying he expected the same even-handed approach in 2026, the Melbourne racer reflected on his 2025 near-miss by revealing his pride in how he'd handled the late-season drama.
As the pair faced the media at McLaren's HQ in Woking before a season of sweeping changes to F1's cars and technical regulations, Piastri sounded buoyed and refreshed by the support he'd received on his return to Australia.
"It was nice to go back and spend some time with my family and just take a bit of a step away from F1 and racing," mused the 24-year-old, who slipped back to third in the title race behind Norris and Max Verstappen, having been the clear leader after 15 of the 24 races.
"Going back home this Christmas was a bit different to the previous summers; definitely a few more people knew who I was.
"And just the support I had from being in the title fight and the amount of comments I got just about the way I go about things was honestly nice to hear.
"Obviously, I'm not here just to be known as just a 'nice person' or someone that goes about things in a way that people think is good. I'm here to try and become an F1 world champion - but I'm very proud of the way I've gone about things.
"There's a lot of lessons from last year and, yes, the ending was a bit painful, but you can treat that in one of two ways.
"Either you can let it bring you down or let it give you more confidence and motivation for the future - and with such a different rule-set this year, that's been a very good avenue to channel any motivation I gained over the off-season."
Piastri had returned home post-season amid much indignation about how he'd seemingly been the one to suffer from most of the contentious calls McLaren made when trying to implement the team's much-trumpeted 'papaya rules', which preach driver equality amid a 'team-first' environment.
A question was even raised by a senator in the Australian parliament about Piastri supposedly getting an unfair shake from McLaren - but when asked by AAP whether he actually felt he'd had a raw deal, the driver played the team man as usual.
"I think I got a fair shot last year, and I'm expecting that to stay exactly the same," said Piastri.
"That's definitely not to say that certain things could have been done better last year - I think that was probably clear for everyone watching - but I think, for me, at no point were there any bad intentions, or any times I questioned the intentions.
"Things could have been done better, handled differently, but that's part of elite sport and F1. You're never going to get every decision right or make every single person happy.
"So I think I got a fair shot last year, and we're working on how we can improve things and make sure that we try and become stronger."
After testing the new smaller, nippier McLaren last week at the start of F1's brave new world in Barcelona, Piastri reported it was "quite different to last year" but "not as alien as we might have feared."
After further testing in Bahrain, his eyes are set firmly on his home season-opener in Melbourne in March, where last year he skidded off when in line for a podium finish.
"Hopefully it goes a bit better than last year, but it's going to be such an unknown for everybody that at this point, I'm just trying to maximise the time I've got in Bahrain testing and hit the ground running," he said.
"But for me, after the amount of support I gained over the last 12 months, especially in Australia, it's going to be nice to be back racing at home."
