Oscar Piastri has bemoaned the performance of his McLaren at the Spanish Grand Prix, claiming he was ‘not comfortable’ in the car all weekend.
The Australian only qualified 10th on the grid, his worst qualifying session all year, after failing to set a lap time due to track limits infringements and a mistake at Turn 12 during his final run in Q3.
Although Piastri has the same specification car as Norris, he has lacked the pace to challenge his teammate who managed to out-qualify Max Verstappen to pole by 0.020s.
He worked his way up to seventh in the Grand Prix, finishing ahead of both Alpines and Sergio Perez, but failed to get close to the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. By the end of the race, he was lapping around a second slower than Norris, who was chasing Verstappen for the win.
Oscar Piastri bemoans poor performance in McLaren
Piastri was beaten by Norris for the seventh time this season in qualifying and for the eighth time in a race. He seemingly lacked answers as to why he was so far off the pace compared to his teammate when speaking to F1.com.
“It’s been a tough weekend, not been comfortable with the car. On Friday it was looking more positive, then before qualifying it was a bit of a struggle,” said Piastri.
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“At certain points during qualifying it looked a little bit better but I struggled quite a bit for whatever reason.”
Can Oscar Piastri match Lando Norris?
Piastri has often been unsure about the root cause of his troubles since the start of the season.
Since McLaren has piled on the upgrades to the MCL38 he has not benefitted as much as Norris, who has challenged for race wins twice since the Emilia Romagna GP.
Piastri has made progress with his tyre management compared to last year, having driven as well as Norris at the Miami GP before getting caught up in contact with Carlos Sainz.
He later put in a strong performance at the Monaco GP, largely owing to the stalemate created by the early red flag that enabled drivers to change their tyres.
But he appears to lack the consistency that Norris has shown, who is starting to emerge as a credible title threat to defending champion Verstappen. Jolyon Palmer spotted something ‘interesting’ about his struggles during the Spanish GP.
Piastri is contracted to race with McLaren until the end of 2026, having committed his long-term future with the outfit.
The post 'Not comfortable': Oscar Piastri bemoans Spanish GP 'struggle' appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
