Oscar Piastri says McLaren’s strong form at the British Grand Prix was a “nice reward” for its work in the opening half of 2023.
McLaren claimed a podium finish through Lando Norris, with the Briton crossing the line in second place.
Piastri, too, looked to be on course for a podium before an inaptly-timed Safety Car shuffled him back to fourth place.
McLaren struggled for pace throughout the opening stages of the 2023 campaign, admitting in the build-up to the season that it had missed development targets with its car.
As it continued car development at the rounds in Austria and Great Britain, it was able to compete at the front of the field.
Reflecting on his own race from Silverstone, Piastri states he mostly feels content with his result despite being somewhat disappointed over missing out on a podium.
“[I feel] mostly satisfaction,” he said.
“Compared to where we had been at points during the season, to be disappointed with fourth place seemed a little bit harsh.
“But without that Safety Car, there’s always a question of what could have been, but I was just super happy to be back towards the front and for the whole team to be genuinely there on merit was very refreshing and a nice reward for our hard work.
“Now we’ve got to try and maintain that and try and fight towards the front again.
“So yeah, I was thinking there might be a trophy coming my way for quite a lot of that race but hopefully I’ve got some more chances.”
Despite McLaren’s on-track performance taking a step forward over the last handful of rounds, Piastri says the MCL60 car itself doesn’t feel much different compared to the start of the year.
“I think the car is obviously a fair bit quicker than what we had at the start of the season,” he said.
“I think it still has quite similar strengths and weaknesses that we’ve started to address but still need some more work.
“So the car doesn’t feel massively different. It’s not like it’s a completely different animal to drive now. So we’ll have our strong tracks.
“I think Silverstone with all the high-speed corners suited us quite nicely. Here is obviously a much lower-speed circuit so we’ll see how we go.
“I think we will try and be optimistic, that we can stay more towards the front but whether we’ll be fighting for a podium again, I’m not quite sure.”
