23/06/2023
NEWS STORY
As McLaren leaves Canada empty handed once again, Oscar Piastri bemoans the MCL60's inconsistency from track-to-track.
Hard to believe but the Woking squad hasn't scored points in Montreal since 2014, when Jenson Button finished fourth and teammate Kevin Magnussen ninth.
This year, though Lando Norris finished ninth, thereby seemingly ending the point-less streak, he was subsequently demoted for "unsportsmanlike behaviour".
As the team awaits the upgrade that will involve "every single aerodynamic part on the car", Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri have to make do with what they've got.
The upgrade, to be introduced in stages from Silverstone and over the course of the subsequent two races, is the first of significance since Baku, but even that did little to improve the car's lack of consistency.
"I think it is the inconsistency from track to track," admitted Piastri when asked what has surprised him most this season. "We seem to be a bit up and down at the moment, but we are working on that.
"Otherwise, it is just how tight the competition is," he continued. "Aston Martin made a big jump, which was a surprise, but it is so close from tenth on the grid backwards.
"Depending on the weekend, the order from tenth to twentieth can be jumbled up from around five teams... it is incredibly tight.
"We have seen some exceptionally close qualifying sessions so far this year, and we have been on both the good and the bad end of those."
"I think the upgrade we brought in Baku helped us out a bit," he admitted. "It is in a bit of a different direction to how the car was previously, so there is more potential with the development of the car. But to catch the top teams, we need more development, though I think we have been getting on top of the set-up of the current car.
"We have been fine-tuning it and trying to get the last little bits out of it. I think we have nailed that part, and now we need some bigger bits to take that next step.
"Generally, our car works when it is cold and damp, which we saw on Sunday in Monaco and in qualifying in Spain," he said. "I think that is the strength of our car right now, and that is where it has felt the most comfortable. In Saudi Arabia as well, when we were on a high grip circuit during the cool temperatures at night."