Oscar Piastri feels mistakes and errors are the reason behind why he and teammate Lando Norris couldn’t achieve more victories in recent races.
Over the last few events, McLaren has become Red Bull’s strongest opponent, yet they have failed to convert very strong pace into regular victories.
Although Lando Norris won the Miami Grand Prix which was his first win in his career, at Imola, Monaco, Montreal, Spain, Red Bull Ring and Silverstone, there has been quite a few missed opportunities.
Speaking of them, those failings were mostly strategical or operational, with the exception coming in Austria where Norris and Verstappen clashed.
Piastri has endured the same fate as Norris as a strategy blunder cost the driver from Melbourne an incredible opportunity to take maiden Grand Prix win at Silverstone last time out.
Piastri remains optimistic and feels that he is now ready to reach the top step, believing the Woking-based team has now got F1’s fastest car.
“I think, definitely, I am ready to do it.
“The kind of good but kind of bad thing is it’s never been the same thing that’s prevented us from winning.
“Obviously in Silverstone we made the wrong call. In Miami we had an issue in qualifying with traffic. Austria… well, the less said about the qualifying [track limits] the better.
“So I guess it is a good thing that it’s not been a repeated error or mistake but I feel like there’s been a good handful now, I think on both sides of the garage, where we felt like we could have won the race.
“We’ve got the hardest part nailed. We’ve got an incredibly quick car; we just need to capitalise on using it.”
It is worth mentioning that Piastri has already tasted F1 success when he won the Sprint in Qatar last year. He has got two 2nd places to his name this year, with those coming in Monaco and Austria.
Sergio Pérez’s poor form has allowed McLaren to close the gap to 78 points in the Constructors’ Championship, down from 113 after Miami.
In the Drivers’ Championship, however, Max Verstappen has been consistently excellent, extending his gap to 84 points despite McLaren having the quicker package most of the time.
When asked about how good Red Bull is operationally and if people tend to underestimate it or maybe don’t notice, Piastri says McLaren is fully aware of their quality.
Red Bull were on the ball in Canada and Silverstone, making perfect calls on tyres at the right time in mixed conditions to ensure Max Verstappen beat Lando Norris in both races. Strategically they have been the top team for a good few years.
Aside from a slow stop in Austria that opened the door for the controversial clash between the Dutchman and the Brit, Red Bull’s pit crew has been absolutely outstanding and the benchmark for quite some time.
“I don’t think we ever underestimated how strong they are operationally.
“I think their pit stops have always been probably the best in the paddock. We’ve got the world record, but they’ve always consistently been incredibly strong on that.
“Strategy, they’ve always been very strong on that.
“We knew that even if we had a car as quick as them, it was going to be tough to beat them, which is proving to be the case, I guess.
“So yeah, maybe some people underestimated just how they are everywhere, but we certainly didn’t.”
