Oscar Piastri evaluated McLaren’s performance after leading the second free practice session for the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, offering a cautious analysis of the team’s pace relative to Ferrari and Mercedes.
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“Hard to say, especially at this moment, but if we can operate the car as expected, we find a significant amount of lap time. I think we are more or less at that performance level,” the Australian stated.
Piastri acknowledged that the team is still slightly behind competitors in race pace: “I don’t know exactly how our ‘long-run’ turned out, but I never thought we were far behind Mercedes and Ferrari. I’ve always felt we are just one step behind and I’m still optimistic that if we put everything in the ideal place, we can get close to 100% of the potential,” he said.
Despite the cautious assessment, Piastri recorded the fastest lap in FP2 with 1:19.729, beating Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli by more than two-tenths and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton by more than three-tenths.
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Piastri also commented on the challenges brought by the new rules, including battery management and the difficulty of finding clean air for his fast laps: “It’s being tricky. We don’t know exactly how difficult it’s going to be. Trying to do practice sessions now is very complicated if you are out of sequence with the others,” he said.
The McLaren driver also highlighted the unusual way drivers have been starting their laps, which adds complexity to the assessment of the car and traffic: “Most of us are launching laps in the middle of the pit straight, so judging the car behind is very, very difficult. There are some important peculiarities that we need to get used to,” he added.
Even so, the Australian maintains some optimism, believing that all teams should evolve over the rest of the weekend: “It’s still going to be an interesting weekend. I think everyone will find a lot of performance overnight, adjusting things to what they want,” Piastri concluded.
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