It was another strong weekend for McLaren with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finishing third and fourth at the end of the Australian Grand Prix.
The young Brit benefitted from Max Verstappen’s early retirement despite McLaren’s pit strategy meaning he was leapfrogged by Charles Leclerc.
Speaking after the race, Oscar Piastri reflected on a positive home Grand Prix as he cemented his fifth position in the Drivers’ Championship.
No Australian has ever recorded a podium at their home race and Piastri came within one position of finally achieving that feat.
However, they couldn’t close down the two Ferraris despite Piastri letting Lando Norris through due to having fresher tyres.
Piastri didn’t have to deal with anyone closing him down behind him and was surprised that Sergio Perez wasn’t quicker in Melbourne.
Red Bull had a race to forget after Verstappen’s retirement with Perez unable to capitalise on his teammate failing to score any points.
Oscar Piastri surprised Sergio Perez wasn’t faster
The 2024 season looked set to be as predictable as 2023 after the first two races with Red Bull dominating both events.
They’re normally incredibly reliable too, but it was clear within the first two laps that something was very wrong with Max Verstappen’s car.
He didn’t last much longer and his right rear brake was on fire and spectacularly exploded as he entered the pit lane.
That meant that the pressure was on Sergio Perez to carry the torch for the Austrian outfit.
The Mexican – who has 37 podiums to his name in Formula 1 – had more qualifying woes on Saturday, something he was dealing with throughout last season.
However, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Perez made light work of driving through the grid and finishing second to Verstappen.
Unfortunately, Perez was unable to replicate this in Melbourne and Piastri was surprised the 34-year-old wasn’t closing him down.
He didn’t have much trouble overtaking George Russell and Fernando Alonso, but that shows the difference in pace right now between McLaren and the two teams trying to chase them down.
Sergio Perez fails to capitalise on Max Verstappen’s retirement
Reflecting on the Grand Prix, Piastri said: “I think definitely we were a bit quicker than we expected.
“We could hang with the Ferraris that was a positive surprise and obviously Max went out early.
“I was surprised Checo [Perez] wasn’t a bit quicker so, a good result, happy with that and I think the fact that we were able to stay pretty close to Ferrari was a great sign.”
Sergio Perez back under the microscope after positive start to 2024
Like so many drivers in F1 this season, Sergio Perez is racing for his future in the sport.
He’s already been told what he needs to do to secure an extension and back-to-back second-place finishes suggested he had finally got to grips with the RB20.
However, Perez couldn’t extract anywhere near enough pace out of the car on Sunday to challenge which left Piastri surprised.
Christian Horner explained after the race that Perez was actually dealing with an issue he would have been unaware of.
The team principal said: “He’s probably not aware from it but he picked up some damage and lost a significant amount of downforce from the floor of the car when he passed Fernando.
“As soon as you get that, your tyre deg gets worse. We were just not good at the end of the stints, which is an unusual trait for our cars. We need to understand that.”
Red Bull will expect to be much quicker in Japan at the next Grand Prix and Verstappen will be on a mission to make up for Sunday’s retirement.
The pressure will once again be on Sergio Perez to perform and prove he’s the right man to partner the Dutchman going forward.
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