Oscar Piastri feels McLaren is steadily becoming “more comfortable”
with its competitive position in the Formula 1 grid. The Woking
squad started the current campaign on the back foot, but has
successfully developed its car throughout the season, with big
packages coming in Austria and Singapore, propelling it from
also-ran to the second-fastest team behind Red Bull. Piastri and
Lando Norris have scored nine podiums in the last 11 races and are
now on course to end the season fourth in the Constructors’
Championship, with further progress inhibited by its slow start to
the season. Despite a brief revival in mid-2021, McLaren has
largely been a midfield runner since Zak Brown assumed control as
CEO in 2018, with the team struggling, although progress is finally
being made, with Piastri describing how the team is adjusting to
life as a front-runner once again. Piastri hails McLaren
correlation “I always had belief in the team that if we had a car
capable of fighting at the front wouldn’t be ready to do it,”
Piastri told media including RacingNews365. “I think we’ve been
able to show that in the second half of the year. The development
and progress from the car side of things in particular has been
incredible. “Now we’re slowly getting more and more comfortable
with being at the front. “Instead of referring to some of the other
teams as the top teams, they are our competitors now.” Piastri
highlighted that a key factor to McLaren’s resurgence has been its
correlation between its factory data and the car on the track.
“It’s been one hell of a turnaround, definitely,” he stated. “The
first upgrade we put on really gave us an extra step in performance
and everything else since has done the same. “The most encouraging
thing has been that everything we’ve wanted to put on the car and
everything we’re going to change with the car has done what it’s
supposed to. “All the numbers that we expected were basically the
same in real life, which you can’t always take for granted. I think
it’s been remarkable.”
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