Oscar Piastri is relying on hope that he and McLaren can understand why it ran “into a lot of different problems” at Formula 1‘s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
The Woking-based squad showed some impressive pace in free practice at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, sparking some early predictions that it could perhaps challenge for the victory.
But qualifying saw Lando Norris managed a best of three tenths of pole position, with Piastri a further tenth behind.
Norris did give the team another podium finish with third, but was over 20 seconds adrift of race-winner Lewis Hamilton, with Piastri almost a minute behind in fifth.
After the race, Piastri was asked if he had an understanding of where things fell away, but failed to grasp any comprehension of the causes.
“No, not really. I was trying a lot of different things and running into a lot of different problems, so I think just struggling a lot with grip, tyre life, obviously,” he told media, including Motorsport Week.
“So I don’t have any answers at the moment. I’m sure there will be some answers later, but yeah, it was a surprise to struggle so much.”
Piastri added that there were some inconsistent moments where the MCL40 felt better but concluding it would get worse as a result, concluding that “all I can hope is that we learn why it was so difficult from that.
“Obviously, the points we gained today were still reasonable, but obviously, I want the performance to be a lot stronger than it was.”
McLaren’s Miami resurgence has begun to look like a false dawn, but will nevertheless hope for another next week in Austria. However, a repeat of last year’s dominant 1-2, led by Piastri, feels like a distant memory now.
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