McLaren made a good impression in Saturday’s FP3 after the changes made overnight, with Lando Norris seventh and Piastri joining him in eighth.
Norris’ qualifying was ruined by a contact with the wall in Q1, but Piastri was able to hit it in Q3, taking a solid ninth place. Thanks to penalties from Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, this will translate into an eighth place on the grid.
“I think every time I get in the car I feel more and more comfortable,” said the Australian. “Compared to Bahrain, I don’t think I’ve done anything completely different or changed anything.”
“It’s just that everything has settled down better and better and there were no mistakes today. They are all still incredibly close, but I was on the right side of the pack this time. I felt like I put it all together so much better today. And that did the difference”.
Piastri admitted he was careful to build up his speed on the tricky Jeddah circuit, despite having known it since his F2 days.
“I think in the early laps on Friday everything was a bit faster than I remember from F2!” he said when asked by Motorsport.com if he had everything under control from the start.
“So it took some getting used to, of course. I think more than anything it helped to get used to the car. I think if you can get used to the car, then life becomes easier.” no matter which track you go to”.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“From Bahrain to here, I seem to have made a good step forward. I think this morning was a good session and obviously qualifying went well too. So yes, I’m improving.”
“I think a little knowledge of the track could help, but in any case I did a lot more laps in Bahrain than here! So I don’t think it was that, just the fact that I got more and more confident with the car.”
When asked if the speed of the MCL60 over the flying lap was better than expected, he continued: “I think our overall pace seems a little better. I don’t think we expected the pace per lap to be any better than the race In fact, Friday was almost the opposite.”
“We’ll see what we can do on Sunday. But yes, I think that when we have a lot of grip, when we cut off the fuel, the car is a little better for everyone”.
“But it went well for us. I think what we did during the night was very useful. Even if it wasn’t revolutionary, I think that after FP3 we were much more optimistic than yesterday evening.”
“So even these small steps forward really make the difference. And Sunday will certainly be a hard-fought race. Many other cars have different strengths than ours. We’ll see how it turns out.”
Piastri admitted that now the team can be more optimistic about the results it could try to aspire to this season.
“Yes, I think so,” he said. “The values are so narrow. Even in Q1, I think the difference between being in the top 10, where I was, and being outside, was about two tenths.”
“So if you make one little mistake, or a couple of small mistakes, it looks like a complete disaster. If you have a really good lap, you look like a hero.”
“So we have to deal with these small margins, and I think we’re doing a great job. And obviously we have some updates planned throughout the year that will help us, but I’m sure everyone else will too.”
“And being able to get a little bit more wherever possible, especially with a grid as close together as the current one, will make all the difference.”
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