McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have suggested that their car’s pace is looking good for this weekend’s Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, but admit extracting the best from the package is proving to be a challenge.
The title-chasing duo both saw themselves finish behind Charles Leclerc in the first free practice sessions at the notorious street circuit, the Monegasque driver topping both FP1 and FP2 in-front of his home crowd.
Norris and Piastri finished third and fifth respectively in the early afternoon, with second and fourth place in the second run, this time in the Australian’s favour.
However, Piastri would have surely been left disappointed with himself, after a punt into the wall at Sainte Devote saw him limping back to the pits, requiring a new nose.
When asked by Sky F1 after the second session how he felt his day went, Piastri said that whilst the MCL39’s pace is there, putting all the pieces of the jigsaw together is yet to be achieved.
“Tricky. Yes, I think just the whole day has been up and down,” he said. I think when we get everything together, the pace is quite good. It’s just not proving that easy to do at the moment.
“So some things to look at, especially for myself, it’s been a very messy day. So yeah, to try and reset a bit tomorrow, because I think the pace in the car is there.”
Piastri indicated that whilst McLaren, as well as himself, have been out of sorts, Ferrari seem to have genuine pace and will be a threat for victory come raceday.
“I think clearly Ferrari are looking a lot stronger here than they have done,” he said. “But yeah, I think for today, it’s been on my side, been quite messy, but yeah, plenty of things to learn, and think tomorrow will be an interesting day.”
Small things add up for McLaren at Monaco
Norris was equally cautious after the day’s sessions but suggested there was more satisfaction on his side.
“It’s always good fun here. It’s always stressful, but, yeah, good fun,” he told Sky F1. “Just difficult to get some clean laps and things at times. But I think a nice feeling, felt comfortable from the beginning. But you know, progress [needed] more in some areas.”
The Brit said that the package at Monaco is required to be perfect, otherwise a collection of different small problems will accumulate into one bigger issue.
“It’s difficult to describe the things,” he said. “But, you know, we’re talking small things, like it’s not huge, you know, but when you’re talking about hundredths here and there, it’s, small, all the small things that add up, but just too difficult to get the braking right, to get the cornering right, to get the the tyres, the grip, the feeling all in like the perfect window.”
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