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"For the Love of a Lady" National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954) 21 February 1912: 3. Web. 30 Jul 2026 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article157954742>

For the Love of a Lady

ITALIAN STABBED IN QUARREL.

MELBOURNE, Tuesday.

There is an atmosphere of romance, about the adventures of Joseph Piastri, who lies in the Melbourne Hospital. To the officials there Piastri is only a “case” suffering from an incised wound. But to people possessed of temperament he appears a replica of many a hero of grand opera and grand passions, a “son of Vesuvius,” whose undoing was due to the fiery Latin nature that leads to song and stilettos, poetry and paragraphs.

Piastri is 25 years of age, a laborer. He was admitted for treatment of a stab in the right aim, and two punctured wounds on the body. How the injuries were caused he cannot or will not state. All he says is that he had a fight, and that he discovered that he had been stabbed.

For five years he had been the favored suitor of a young woman. Two days ago she left him and transferred her affections to another. Late last night, according to Piastri, while he was in a hotel in Exhibition-street, his old flame entered with her new squire. She was haughty, and in a spirit of pride in her new possession, taunted the old but discarded lover. “Here's the man I love now,” she said. “Do you want to fight him?”

“If you want him, go with him,” remarked Piastri.

Hereupon her newly-found possession stepped forward. Slapping his manly chest, after the approved method of heroes who go to the assistance of beauty in distress, he said, “That girl is mine now.”

“All right,” rejoined Piastri. “If she wants you, you can have her.”

The hero felt that he wanted someone worth fighting for. Love won too easily is not appreciated as much as that gained after a struggle. “Square everything up,” he said to the discomfited Joseph. “I will now fight you for her.”

The gage was accepted, and four or five youths ranged themselves on the side of the challenger, and two agreed to see to the requirements of Joseph’s corner. Then the party adjourned to a lane off Little Lonsdale-street.

Judging by the question of one of the challenger’s supporters, there are different methods of fighting in the locality. He asked Piastri, “What kind of a fight is it to be?”

“A fair stand-up go,” replied the young Italian.

The combat began. The men got into “holts,” and Piastri dashed his enemy to the ground. The seconds broke in and tore Piastri away. He would fight no more, and went home to bed, weary and heartsore. Sleep came to him quickly, and he forgot the troubles of the night.

“there are a lot of young people dreaming to be in your position. what kind of advice could you give them?” 

lando: “i mean, it's never easy. it's never easy, so i don't think anyone should ever expect anything in life to be easy or to be gifted or just to come towards you. especially if you want to be the top of any sport. i think everyone in formula 1 is at the top of our sport. of course, to be a world champion in the 20 drivers, 22 drivers is another step up.

i think the main thing is you have to try believe in yourself. you have to also accept that at least always have the belief that there is someone out there better than you and that always makes you hungry to learn more and to try more to become a better person and a better driver.

i think for me, i'm very much the opposite, and i think you know that. i've always been someone that's very negative, then i need someone by my side to make sure i'm positive. but it's certainly better to be this way than ever be overly positive and thinking 'i'm fine, i'm good, everything's under control' because that's when things start to go sideways and when you start to become either a bad person or just a bad driver. when you think you've made it and there's still a lot more that you need to work on.

i feel like i always had the right approach. maybe not perfect approach and there was things i could have done better. but always believe there's someone out there better than you that you need to work harder than. and i think as long as you have that and you enjoy what you do - for me, it's always been very important to enjoy what i do. so if i can have a good group of people around me - i bring my friends, i enjoy my life outside of formula 1.

"you have been part of the mclaren family since quite a long time now. what do you consider to be the main strength of the team?"

lando: "i mean, the easy answer is just to say the people. i feel like, if you ask any person, they're probably going to say a similar thing. so i don't think it's as simple as just saying that. but the people that are part of mclaren, but also how they lead it, you know, how andrea leads the team, how zak leads the team. they're very different people, andrea and zak, but they're a good combination. they kind of, they work together very well.

and you have zak who is a little bit more like the fun, brings the laughter out in people. not that andrea is not funny. andrea is a little bit more the serious 'we're not doing good enough' and who will give it to people very honestly, which you need. you need honesty. i think when you're working with so many people, you cannot have people who don't accept responsibility, all of these different things.

so i think you just have a pair of leaders who are very very well in harmony with each other and can lead a team very very well. and when you said this is a good trend, the rest follow in a good way. then the next set of leaders lead their people in a strong way.

so it's the personalities. the personalities of the people that we have, because every team that you see has incredible, smart, some of the cleverest people in the world. but if they don't know how to lead a team, run a team, get people to work together, it's useless in some ways.

lando: "on the simulator every day trying to work on the car. no days off for us at mclaren.”

oscar: "he can go on the simulator, i have some days off!”

Interviewer: “Oscar, only P5 today after a lot of battles. What did you miss today?”

Oscar: “Uhm... A few parts of my car? [...]”

he can't keep getting away with this