Oscar Piastri has revealed when McLaren believed it could catch
Aston Martin for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
McLaren commenced the season in poor fashion after admitting it had
missed development targets with the MCL60, originally bringing
floor updates to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Significant packages
were brought to the car in Austria and Singapore, transforming the
team from also-rans to second-fastest behind Max Verstappen and Red
Bull, with the team scoring seven podiums in the last six races as
Piastri banked victory in the Qatar Sprint. After Lando Norris
finished second in the United States, McLaren overtook Aston Martin
for fourth, having out-developed the Silverstone team after its
early season progress stalled, with Piastri conceding the team had
no hope of catching Aston after its poor start to the year. ‘Never
a target to beat Aston Martin’ “Until Austria, no, definitely not,”
he told media including RacingNews365 when asked if he thought it
was possible to beat Aston Martin. “Even the rate that that we
managed to catch them, I don’t think it was really ever a target
necessarily to beat them. “It was just to try and improve and
whatever results we got is what we got. The [development] race has
been what it’s been – it’s been enough to overtake Aston. “Of
course at this point of the year, we want to stay ahead of Aston
and but very firmly, like the teams around us, we’ve got an eye on
next year. “Hopefully, we can come out strong, but definitely at
the start of the year, we wouldn’t expect to have the second half
that we’ve had.”
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