15/03/2024
NEWS STORY
Having spent much of the evening staring at Lewis Hamilton's rear wing, Oscar Piastri bemoans McLaren's lack of pace.
A somewhat ironic situation given that when subsequently shadowing the other McLaren the seven time world champion was left equally frustrated at the Mercedes lack of grunt.
Pitting during the Safety Car period that followed Lance Stroll's crash, once Charles Leclerc - who had also stopped - passed Hamilton, Piastri found himself hunting down the Mercedes for the next 21 laps until he too finally pitted.
When teammate Norris pitted a lap later, Piastri inherited fourth, the position he held until the end of the race.
Asked if hunting down Hamilton was fun, Piastri admitted: "I'm not sure fun is the word I would use... frustrating, yes.
"It kind of just showed a couple of weaknesses of ours," he continued. "I was very relieved when he boxed out of the way but i just didn't quite have enough on the on the straights, mainly, to get past."
The youngster made two valiant attempts to pass Hamilton at Turn 1 but on both occasions overcooked it and headed off over the run-off.
At the heart of the problem is the relative inefficiency of the McLaren's DRS.
"It's very, very even," said the Australian of the McLaren and Mercedes. "We have different strengths and weaknesses, for sure, and I think qualifying made the difference. Lewis showed that if we qualified 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 we need to do some work to try and jump them and catch the two teams ahead."
"Oscar's race was effectively cashing in the strong results he already had yesterday, where he made strong progress through qualifying to qualify in P5," said team boss, Andrea Stella.
"Today, he managed to gain one more position, finishing P4 in what I think was a very clean and solid race, staying out of trouble, being quick, but also being patient when you have to be patient. You don't have to get nervous like 'I've not been able to pass Hamilton, I'm going to attack even more'.
"Actually, at one stage, he had a little lock-up into Turn 1," he added. "He stayed calm, he waited for the race to come to him. We're just very, very pleased but not surprised.
"We see all the details, we see all the data, and we know the potential is very high. And we know that the consistency from a racing point of view, and mental point of view, is very strong."
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