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Oscar Piastri is unsure about McLaren’s performance potential against Mercedes and Ferrari in the Barcelona GP. Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, after the qualifying session, the McLaren driver suggested that their performance on the straights remained a weakness.
Piastri qualified seventh, while Lando Norris secured fourth on the grid. The top seven drivers were separated by fine margins during qualifying, with Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar positioned between the two McLarens. As a result, Piastri’s race will likely depend on how McLaren performs against the Red Bulls before attempting to challenge Ferrari and Mercedes.
The Australian believes that being close to Mercedes and Ferrari over a single qualifying lap does not necessarily translate into race pace. He felt both teams appeared stronger over longer runs, making a fight for the podium places a difficult challenge.
Asked by Sportskeeda about his expectations from the race, Oscar Piastri said:
“We’ll have to wait and see. It’s going to be tough. We, we felt like maybe we could get close to Mercedes over one lap, or certainly be able to challenge for the front row or the top three, but over a race distance you don’t really have anywhere to hide, so we’ll see tomorrow. I think Mercedes are going to be incredibly strong. Ferrari also looked very good, they looked very strong in all the corners, just suffering on the straights. So yeah, I think they’re going to be tough to get past as well, but stranger things have happened.”
Oscar Piastri was surprised and disappointed with FIA’s decision to rescind the penalties in Monaco
Oscar Piastri feels that the decision to overturn Pierre Gasly’s penalty from the Monaco GP has set the wrong precedent. He admitted he was surprised by the ruling, which saw a penalty reversed and a driver reinstated to the podium positions.
Piastri crossed the finish line in fifth place, but Gasly’s five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane promoted him to fourth. The decision to overturn the penalty has created controversy, with Piastri believing it could encourage teams to explore legal avenues to reverse incidents and alter race results after the fact. He suggested that, based on that precedent, George Russell’s penalty should also potentially be reconsidered.
With the 96-hour post-race deadline to appeal their own penalties having passed, McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes are exploring options to challenge the decision to reverse Gasly’s penalty. Piastri believes the ruling could create a situation where teams or drivers choose not to serve penalties during a race and instead attempt to overturn them through legal channels afterwards. The Australian also highlighted that he had served a penalty himself during the race, which potentially cost him a podium finish.
Asked about his thoughts on the decision on reinstating Gasly’s podium, Oscar Piastri said:
“Pretty mind blown by the decision. Because how you can reverse a decision that was ultimately wrong, but when other people have been penalised for the same thing and served the penalty in the race. How you can then change one penalty, knowing that probably five or six other races have been impacted by that is astonishing. I’ve obviously lost the position, but you can only imagine how George is feeling, so I could not believe my eyes.”
Explaining the precedent set by the whole incident, Oscar Piastri said:
“I lost the position to Pierre because I served the penalty, so technically I should be P3 but then technically George should be P3 and the whole thing is now a mess, so it’s quite the predicament they’ve got themselves into, and I don’t know how you get yourself out of that one. Because now the precedent, as it is, is you don’t serve the penalty, you take it to court, wait probably a few months to decide the race, and who the hell wants to go racing like that? So perplexed is the word I would use. I think before you could kind of say bad luck, it was wrong, but it was wrong for everybody, and kind of everyone was treated the same.”
The Monaco race kept the stewards busy both during the sessions and after the chequered flag. Alpine used the available timeframe to file a Right of Review in support of their driver. Following the decision, McLaren and Red Bull have openly stated their intention to challenge the ruling, turning the entire incident into a legal matter.
Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli
