Oscar Piastri has pinpointed of the main sources of McLaren’s struggles as he and the team struggled for pace once again at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix
Oscar Piastri has pinpointed of the main sources of McLaren’s struggles as he and the team struggled for pace once again at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix
McLaren endured another challenging weekend at Silverstone, the MCL40 a long way off the pace of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull across both qualifying and the race itself, a stark contrast to the form that had made the team championship favourites for much of the season.
While Norris salvaged fourth in Sunday’s Grand Prix, dragging the car forward through the field after a difficult start, Piastri languished down in 11th, suffering from a lack of confidence all weekend and never able to find the rhythm that had carried him to victories earlier in the campaign.
The high-speed corners exposed a known weakness of the MCL40, the sweeping sections of Maggots, Becketts and Chapel proving particularly troublesome as the car failed to generate the front-end stability needed to attack such demanding, committed corners at full speed.
But Piastri has revealed another area where McLaren has fallen behind, influenced by environmental conditions that stripped away the car’s usual strengths and left its underlying weaknesses exposed for all to see.
“I think the conditions [at Silverstone] have definitely exposed where we are weak,” Piastri said to media, including Motorsport Week.
“I think when the grip is good, when things are consistent, we can be in or close to the fight, so when things look consistent, we look okay and mask some of our issues.
“Whereas [in qualifying at Silverstone], the conditions were very tough, and there is nowhere to hide, so it is not a huge surprise we struggled and were so far off.
The Australian’s comments point to a car that has, for much of the season, benefited from a relatively narrow operating window, one that Silverstone’s changeable weather and inconsistent grip levels ripped apart.
Rather than a single fix, Piastri’s assessment suggests McLaren’s issues are systemic, tied to how the MCL40 behaves the moment conditions drift away from ideal.
Oscar Piastri aware of mountain to climb
Piastri then outlined the mountain McLaren has to climb to return to competitiveness, confirming tyre temperatures remain a key problem that has followed the team across multiple rounds this season, not just at Silverstone.
“We’ve got some clear areas we want to work on, but at the moment, we clearly seem to struggle when things are a bit more difficult.
“We saw in Canada and Monaco when the tyre temperatures are difficult and tricky to get in, we struggled when the wind is high, and we’ve struggled when everything is just a little bit outside of our comfort zone.”
The recurring theme across Canada, Monaco and now Silverstone paints a troubling picture for McLaren as the season reaches its midpoint.
With Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull all showing the pace to capitalise when the MCL40 is knocked off its narrow sweet spot, Piastri’s honesty about the scale of the challenge suggests the team faces a significant development push if it is to arrest the slide and keep its championship ambitions alive through the remainder of the year.
“We saw in Canada and Monaco when the tyre temperatures are difficult and tricky to get in, we struggled when the wind is high, and we’ve struggled when everything is just a little bit outside of our comfort zone.”
McLaren and Piastri face a long journey back to winning ways, but identifying their weak points gives hope to finding a light at the end of the tunnel.
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