Oscar Piastri feels McLaren found ‘a lot of evidence’ ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix which proves decisions the Formula 1 team made caused ‘problems’ in recent rounds.
The 23-year-old heads for the Red Bull Ring this weekend keen to counter two difficult races in Montreal and Barcelona. While his McLaren teammate Lando Norris took second place in the Canadian GP and the Spanish GP, all Piastri could claim was fifth place then just seventh.
Piastri even finished 31.541 seconds behind Norris at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last Sunday. It meant both Mercedes and both Ferrari drivers split the Australian from the Briton at the Montmelo venue. Qualifying was also a challenge with Piastri ending Q3 down in P10.
The Spanish GP left Oscar Piastri’s confidence at an all-time low as a McLaren driver
His first flying lap during Q3 left Piastri at the bottom of the timesheet after exceeding track limits. But the Melbourne native would also end the top-10 shootout without a time. Piastri struggled to put a tidy lap together later in Q3 and took a trip through the gravel at Turn 12.
READ MORE: Five unforgettable Austrian GPs from Ferrari’s orders to Hamilton vs Rosberg
It was in sharp contrast to Norris, who took pole position for the Spanish GP and threatened Max Verstappen for the win. Such was his plight in Barcelona that Piastri conceded after the Spanish GP that his confidence was at an all-time low at the first round of F1’s triple-header.
Oscar Piastri believes there is ‘evidence’ proving McLaren’s set-up caused his ‘problems’
With the British GP to follow next Sunday, this week’s Austrian GP has not left McLaren with endless time to find the cause of Piastri’s struggles. But the three-time podium finisher feels there is ‘evidence’ to show decisions the Woking squad made with his set-up were a reason.
“Yeah, I think we do [have the answers],” Piastri told RacingNews365. “There were definitely some things on [the] car set-up that certainly caused some problems. Some things were not major but had much bigger consequences than maybe we thought at the time.
“There’s definitely a lot of evidence to support why I struggled a bit more [and] definitely a couple of things in terms of [my] driving, as well.
READ MORE: The most successful teams and engine providers at the F1 Austrian GP
“But I think we’ve got some pretty clear answers. Talking and looking through the offline simulations of some of the effects of certain things, which then led to other decisions, and you can snowball pretty quickly in situations like that.
“I think we’ve certainly got on top of some of the decisions we made and I guess some of the consequences of them.”
Oscar Piastri went from his first podium of 2024 to struggling in Canada and Spain
Piastri will hope McLaren finding the answers for his struggles of late now sees the 2021 F2 champion get back on track at the Austrian GP. Last week’s Spanish GP was his worst result on pure performance since the Chinese GP in April when the 2020 F3 champion secured P8.
He also ended the Miami GP in P13 as Norris won his first Grand Prix due to his contact with Carlos Sainz. But Piastri bounced back from his frustrations in Florida by sealing fourth in the Emilia Romagna GP, before P2 in the Monaco GP for his first and only podium of the season.
The post ‘A lot of evidence’: Oscar Piastri believes McLaren decision caused ‘problems’ for F1 star appeared first on F1 Oversteer.