Oscar Piastri acknowledged that McLaren did not perform as expected in the qualifying session for the Monaco Formula 1 GP. After securing only seventh position on the starting grid, the Australian admitted that the team faced difficulties throughout the weekend so far, and extracted practically the maximum possible from the car.
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In fact, this result confirms a scenario that was already expected internally by the team. According to Piastri, McLaren arrived in the Principality knowing they would encounter challenges, but the problems faced turned out to be even more evident during the track activities.
“This hasn’t been an easy weekend for us. We came here expecting a challenge and that’s exactly what we found,” said the Australian, who pointed to a lack of grip as the main limitation of the car on the streets of Monte Carlo.
Despite the difficulties, the team managed to make some progress since Friday. Piastri explained that there was an evolution in the car’s balance, but stressed that this was not enough to solve the lack of speed presented during the qualifying session.
“The fundamental problem was a general lack of grip. We’ve been able to make some progress since Friday and improved the balance of the car, but we’re still lacking speed. From my side, I believe we got the maximum possible out of the car in qualifying and managed to put in some reasonable laps,” he said.
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With the race still ahead, the Australian adopts a realistic stance on the possibilities of recovery. Starting from the middle of the pack on one of the most difficult circuits for overtaking, he believes that opportunities to gain positions on track will be quite limited: “We need to be realistic looking at the race. This circuit is known for being extremely difficult to overtake and we don’t expect that to change,” said the McLaren driver.
Given this scenario, the team’s focus will be on strategy and race execution. Piastri emphasized that the priority will be to manage the car well and take advantage of any opportunity that may arise during the race on the streets of Monaco.
“Our attention will be focused on executing a clean strategy and managing the car as best as possible. Anything can happen in Monaco, so we’ll see what we can do,” concluded the Australian, who will seek to transform seventh position on the grid into a more competitive result on Sunday.
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