Oscar Piastri says his difficulty overtaking Lewis Hamilton in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix highlighted a number of weaknesses that McLaren is facing.
The Australian was running a strong fourth after overtaking Fernando Alonso early in the race and appeared to be a threat to Charles Leclerc [lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]for the podium, but was then stuck behind Hamilton when the Mercedes driver didn’t pit under the safety car. Hamilton had the top speed to keep Piastri at bay until he finally made his own stop, showing up a lack of top speed for the McLaren.
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“I’m not sure fun is the word I would use,” Piastri said. “Frustrating, yes. I mean, I think it kind of just showed a couple of weaknesses of ours definitely. I was very relieved when he boxed out of the way but just didn’t quite have enough on the straights mainly to get past.
“I was hoping he was going to pit about 15 laps before he did, but I think he started to struggle on the tires because I was basically past him when he boxed. He had to pit at some stage, and that seemed like a good time to do it.”
Although McLaren moved ahead of Mercedes in the constructors’ standings in Jeddah, Piastri says the fact that he couldn’t overtake Hamilton shows how track position is key between the two teams.
“I think it’s very, very even. I think we have different strengths and weaknesses for sure. And I think qualifying made the difference (in Saudi Arabia). I think Lewis showed that if we qualify behind them, there was a good chance we were going to be stuck behind them for the whole night.
“So I think it’s very, very tight between us. And yeah, we need to do some work to try and jump them and catch the two teams ahead.”
The next round is Piastri’s home race in Melbourne, and he believes a repeat of his fourth place would constitute a strong result given the track characteristics at Albert Park.
“I think there’s a bit of a mix, a bit more low speed than. But we’ll see. Hopefully we can have a good race. If there’s one race of the year you can pick to have a good one it’s your home race. So we’ll try our best. But yeah, I think if we can finish around where we did (in Jeddah), that would be the most we can do.”