During the summer break of 2022, it was confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo would leave McLaren at the end of the campaign following a tough time overall with the Woking-based team.
Following a dispute over his services, former Alpine academy driver and Ricciardo’s fellow Aussie Oscar Piastri was eventually announced as a McLaren driver for 2023.
After 7 races of the 2023 season, Piastri trails Norris 1-6 in the qualifying head-to-head.
An impressive showing in qualifying to make Q3 in Jeddah was the standout moment of the first five races for the driver from Melbourne, but it’s been more recently where the better performances have come.
In Miami, Piastri was only 0.090s off Norris; three weeks later in Monaco the gap was a mere 0.018s in Q2. Last weekend it was going to be close again until an error from the young Australian on his final Q3 attempt at turn 10.
Ricciardo was asked about Piastri’s start to life at McLaren recently. The 8-time Grand Prix winner believes you shouldn’t expect the absolute best from the 22-year-old just yet.
“It’s always tough when looking at a team, who are not performing where they want to be,” said the current Red Bull reserve driver.
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
“Lando is the reference, and it’s hard to know whether 12th place is good or not.
“Although Lando touched the wall in Saudi, Oscar got through and did a good qualifying, and Saudi is not an easy track. So I think that was a good sign for him.
“Since then, sure, Lando’s had a bit of an edge, but it’s still early in Oscars‘ career — you can’t probably expect too much from him yet.
“So I think he’s hit the ground running. He had a good first lap in Miami. So I think he’s been carrying himself pretty well.”
On the topic of his time so far in Formula One, Piastri admitted in Spain he wants to start the weekends stronger and not suddenly find the groove in qualifying.
The Melbourne-born star conceded part of that is about improving his driving. In FP1 he was 0.6s slower than Norris in Spain, but he chipped away at it from there.
“I think in qualifying I’ve sorta been there or thereabouts for a while now.
“Even in practice, I wasn’t super happy yesterday — FP3 I think I made a good step and was happy from the start of qualifying again.
“It seems to be a bit of a similar trend in getting better through the weekend — which is nice when it happens — but I still want to get on to the pace a bit earlier in the weekend. It’s still something I am focusing on.
“When we take out the fuel and the grip comes up, it just makes everything a little bit easier as well.
“I want to start driving a bit better earlier in the weekend, too.”
Photo credit: McLaren Racing
