Oscar Piastri is still only a formula apprentice, but in Great Britain he showed that he is slowly to be reckoned with even among the more seasoned drivers. The native of Melbourne achieved the best qualifying result in his career in difficult conditions and on a demanding circuit. On Sunday, he will start from the second row, which is a big boost for him.
Finally, Oscar Piastri also received the new package. The Australian was given the spec single-seater that Lando Norris drove in Austria and was able to turn it into third place. He did not lose even one and a half tenths to his teammate, which is a remarkable result. It should be remembered that only Norris has the newer “British” version of the McLaren MCL60.
“It really boosted my self-confidence. Regardless of the final result, I felt it was a good round.” he confessed, obviously satisfied Oscar Piastri. “I made a few mistakes in Q3 this year, so it’s nice to have a solid time. Getting third place for him is even better.”
“Each trip adds to my self-confidence and, of course, also to my experience. It’s great that now I’m also fighting for higher ranks. It was a great day,” gushed the 22-year-old Australian, who today can laugh at anyone who a few weeks ago called his transfer to McLaren a jump under the train. If the Papayas keep up this pace, they can be well ahead of Alpino by the end of the season.
The home team is currently exceeding expectations. On Sunday, we will probably see a beautiful battle between McLaren and Ferrari, during which the commemorators will surely like to remember the times long gone.
McLaren has sober expectations ahead of Sunday, but then again, the same was true before qualifying and, well, how it turned out in the end. “Even this weekend we thought we would get into the top ten. However, we were quite good in such conditions, so we quietly but confidently believed that we would perform something special today. And we did it. I’m happy with my bike, I didn’t leave much there. I’m happy to be among the top three.”
The enhancements work, but not quite. Both McLaren drivers stated on Saturday that even though the car has better speed, some undesirable characteristics cannot be eliminated. According to Norris, engineers have so far purified only 30 percent of the single-seater’s DNA.
“I rate it very similarly. This car represents a clear step forward.” he agrees with his colleague Plates. “However, we are also aware that in similar conditions in Barcelona and with the old specification, we were able to attack the leading bars.”
“I don’t want to be negative, but I think that plays a part in it. However, in my opinion, we show ourselves more consistently in front. As Lando said, I don’t have such mixed feelings about the car, it still has some weaknesses that we want to address.” adds one of the heroes of Saturday afternoon. “But the car is overall faster. If I had to choose a car that’s fast or a car that you feel is fast, I’ll choose the really fast one and I’ll deal with the handling afterwards.”
2023-07-08 20:45:34
#Piatri #boosted #selfconfidence #Magazine #F1online.sk
