It was a productive F1 testing day for McLaren, completing over a hundred laps throughout the day in spite of the adverse weather conditions and the lulls in the rhythm of the day.
Oscar Piastri’s F1 Testing
Oscar Piastri’s second day of testing wasn’t as smooth as the first one. He managed to complete 44 laps in spite of not being able to set a lap time during the first two hours. Unexpectedly, rain came pouring with only Haas and Aston Martin bringing wet tyres, forcing the former Alpine reserve driver off track.
He ultimately completed 44 laps without major hiccups, making only slight contact with Hulkenberg under rain and having a moment at Turn 1.
“A trickier day due to the weather. The temperature and rain made it harder to maximise our testing time in my session, but we were still able to work through a lot and achieve a decent amount.
“I’m looking forward to getting back on track tomorrow afternoon and hopefully pushing the car further to see what we can get out of it before we head to Australia. Overall, it was a productive day,” Concluded the young native, looking forward to the first actual round of the 2025 season.
Lando Norris’s F1 Testing
It was an easier day for his more experienced teammate Lando Norris. He was able to sign 77 laps during the afternoon session, which did not feature the same earlier wet weather. His main focus were long runs on hard tyres, especially in the second part of the afternoon.
“Another productive day on track with good learnings. We were able to get a decent number of laps in with a long run. I got the feeling of using some different tyre compounds.
“I think we’ve learned a lot from that, and getting the experience of doing the full race run was very valuable. Good feelings so far, we’ve now got one more day to go to make sure we end the week strongly,” added the Brit, focused on the reminder of his first taste of the 2025 challenger.
Andrea Stella on McLaren’s F1 Testing
Team Principal Andrea Stella was overall satisfied with how the F1 Testing day went for his team. He highlighted the great work which allowed McLaren to collect the data they needed even without the cooperation of the weather conditions.
“Another productive day of testing, despite the changing conditions. The brief periods of rain made it challenging at times this morning, which cost some track time for Oscar, but the team did a good job adapting our run plan accordingly.
“This afternoon, we focused a little more on longer runs, and overall, we have consolidated yesterday’s testing with further data as we learn more about the MCL39.”
