McLaren headed into Austin brimming with optimism. Armed with the most upgrades of any team on the grid, they were confident they’d pull away on the track and in the constructor’s standings. But by the race’s end, Ferrari and Max Verstappen had them beat, leaving McLaren to regroup as they prepared for Mexico.
With limited practice, McLaren couldn’t dial in a perfect setup and missed a Sprint win. While Norris grabbed the pole for the main race, he yet again lost the lead almost immediately, with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari taking command. As the laps ticked on, Ferrari tightened their hold, finishing one-two, with Sainz just behind.
In the background, Oscar Piastri had his own quiet battle, free of the spotlight and finishing in fifth behind his teammate. Looking ahead to Mexico, Oscar Piastri sounded cautiously hopeful about McLaren’s chances. “I hope so,” he said when asked if he felt more optimistic.
“I think qualifying, I think we’ve got some good ideas about why qualifying was so tricky,” he added. “Looking back at the weekend, I think the race itself was actually quite positive, especially from 12 months ago.”
Norris mounted a late push for the podium but couldn’t break Verstappen’s defence and when he eventually overtook him, it was off the track and was slapped with a five-second penalty costing him the podium. Meanwhile, Piastri shadowed his teammate through the early laps and slipped slightly behind in the hard tyre stint.
Speaking about it, he said: “It was more or less the same, especially with the first stint I was going with Lando, the second stint, a few mistakes in the middle of that hard stint. But for 95% of the race, we were a very even match.”
The Aussie reckons McLaren’s pace was strong but missed its mark on the mediums in the first stint, particularly in the opening 15 laps, allowing rivals Ferrari and Max Verstappen to pull ahead. He noted that in such a tight field, even small missteps can decide a race.
“So, I think it looked a little bit worse than it was. It’s just that with the competition being so tight, if you put a step wrong, then you go from being first and second to where we were in fourth and fifth. So, yeah, it’s just a very tight field at the moment,” he said.
Piastri struggled in managing his tyres last year and generally had difficulties competing with his British stablemate, but that seems to have changed this time around.
He managed to outrace Norris 7 times this year and grabbed 2 wins. When probed whether he changed his approach he said, “I think in the race it’s definitely been a really good improvement from last year, so that’s been good.”
Saturdays have been more difficult, with the Australian 3-16 down in qualifying, suggesting his race performances have come at a cost in qualifying.
However, he clarified, “The improvements in that haven’t really come at a sacrifice of qualifying approach, so to speak. So, it’s just been a few tricky sessions, especially more recently, I would say.”
The McLaren driver shared that he was pretty much matched in the first part of the season and is currently focused on improving them. He admitted that a stronger qualifying would really help his weekends and races. “It would just make my weekends much easier starting a bit higher up,” he said, adding that there’s no inherent trade-off between his qualifying and race form. “In theory, I should be able to be good in both,” he emphasised.
Following the blow from Ferrari at Texas, McLaren has rolled out additional changes for the Mexican GP, including a revised floor and will run the same front wing from last weekend. The Woking team aims to extend their lead in the constructors and have 2 more updates planned for the final few races.
