17/06/2024
NEWS STORY
Oscar Piastri believes that McLaren is a serious contender for the title this year.
Since (and including) Miami, the Woking outfit has scored 116 points, compared to Red Bull's 106, Ferrari's 101 and Mercedes 72.
No matter how you look at it, McLaren is on a roll. Indeed, in only his second season, Piastri believes the Woking squad can genuinely challenge for the title.
"It'd be tough, definitely, but I think we're in the fight," he said. "I think we scored the most points this weekend (Canada) as a team, not by much, but it's definitely a really good result for us.
"We've both been very consistent in the last few weekends," he added, referring to he and his teammate Lando Norris, who won in Miami, "and I think across some very different circuits; we've been strong at all of them.
"Still some things to tidy up," he admitted, "and we're talking about little things, but when you're fighting for championships, little things go a long way.
"It's going to be very tough and obviously Red Bull has got a bit of a head start, and I don't know how far behind Ferrari we are now. I definitely think we're in the mix, but it'll be a big second half of the year to make it happen."
89 points down on the world champions, McLaren is just 49 down on Ferrari and 88 ahead of Mercedes.
Other than pace, reliability is McLaren's strong point, the Woking outfit getting both of its drivers to the flag in every race and only failing to score points on one occasion, Piastri's 13th in Miami.
The MCL38 is bullet-proof and as a result, McLaren is the only team where both drivers have completed every single one of the season's 542 laps thus far.
However, in order to maintain the pressure the Woking outfit will need to introduce a regular programme of updates, however team boss Andrea Stella warns that though these will continue, we will not see the sort of wide ranging package as witnessed in Miami.
"For the coming races, we will have some upgrades," he said, "but they won't be a single kind of big upgrade like we have seen over the last 12 months. "More individual components where we found a little bit of performance and rather than waiting to deploy everything together once ready we take it track side.
"So I won't say what but we will see some new stuff coming over the few coming races."