Oscar Piastri admits that McLaren “need to find a bit more” to challenge for regular podiums and potential race victories during the upcoming Formula 1 season.
McLaren is bidding to continue the momentum from last term that saw it transform from struggling to score points to becoming a regular fixture at the sharp end.
However, the Woking-based squad’s run programme during pre-season testing was disrupted by a few technical defects, with only Williams amassing fewer laps.
Nevertheless, Piastri remains confident that the MCL38 is a step forward from its predecessor and believes McLaren is well-placed for the start of the latest season.
“I think it’s not been the smoothest of tests overall for us, but I think this [Friday] afternoon we got a lot of good work done, which was good, a lot of laps,” Piastri said.
“I’m feeling more comfortable than I was three days ago, but still a little bit of work to do. I think we’re there or thereabouts, but it’s just trying to get a bit more performance out of the car.
“I guess we’ll really find out what everybody’s got next week, but it was feeling okay. I did a race distance and I’m feeling in decent shape after that, so not too bad.”
But the Australian, who is entering his sophomore F1 season, contends that McLaren remains behind Red Bull and Ferrari, who appear competitive with a revised car.
“I think Red Bull are a step ahead of everybody. Ferrari look strong as well, not to the same extent, but they look like a decent second fastest at the moment,” he continued.
“We’ve got a bit of work to do, but it’s not a bad place to be starting from.
“I think we’re somewhere towards the front-end in the mix there, but if we want to start challenging for podiums regularly and trying to win races, we need to find a bit more.”
Lando Norris concurred with Piastri’s view on Ferrari, telling Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz that McLaren can’t match the Italian marque’s lap times around Bahrain.
When he was pressed on whether McLaren could aim for the podium in the opening race of the campaign, Norris again made his stance clear with a firm, “No”.
However, the Briton did concede that Bahrain has tended to be a weaker venue for McLaren, while also predicting that Red Bull’s seismic advantage will be intact.
“Even last year when we had a good car, there was a few races we were close to Red Bull and close to Max. I think at the minute they’ve probably extended their gap on everyone.”
Norris is convinced that McLaren is heading in the right direction with its 2024 challenger but hinted that slow-speed corners could remain an inherent weakness.
“We have our good places and bad places,” Norris added.
“I don’t really think at the minute we’ve improved on where we’re going to be bad. I think that’s still clear. Some areas we still really need to work on and I’m not very convinced we’ve made many steps in the right direction.
“But other places we’ve improved a lot and I’m happy as a team we are moving in the right direction with that.”
