F1 News
'Updates from McLaren could go even better at Imola'
- Sandy van Wijngaarden
Although the expectation at the beginning of the season was that Red Bull Racing would be very dominant every Grand Prix, it was McLaren that managed to beat the Austrian racing stable in Miami. Oscar Piastri said at Imola that the full potential of the team's upgrades may not even have come to light yet.
In Miami, McLaren's team came up with major upgrades. Lando Norris got the full package there, while Oscar Piastri had to make do with half the upgrades. At Imola, he got the other half. By mid-2023, McLaren managed to take an amazing step forward with big upgrades. The upgrades are not as big now as they were then. "About what we expect. I would say maybe not quite as big as some of the upgrades we saw last year, but I think that's kind of natural. When the car's getting quicker and quicker, it becomes more difficult to find lap time," Piastri said.
McLaren may yet surprise in Imola
The Australian indicates that the weekend in Miami did not quite go according to plan. "I think Miami was a pretty odd weekend from a tyre point of view. I think, especially in sprint qualifying, going from the medium to the softs, I think the softs were a slightly quicker tyre, but definitely a more difficult tyre to get right. So I think the dips were much more associated with that rather than outright pace. I think clearly in the race, our pace was very strong. Something we didn't necessarily expect going into it, but I think we've got some good ideas on why we looked strong. So, yeah, I think it's doing everything we expected to do, which is always a good thing."
So it could just be that if Imola becomes a weekend that goes more to plan, the team could conjure even more speed out of the top hat. "If it is that, then I would be loving it, but it could also go the other way. You know, I think we definitely did some things right in Miami in terms of set-up and stuff like that and just maximising the package that we've got. But, yeah, we'll have to see. I think for everybody it was a bit of an odd weekend with how the tyres were working.
I think as the cars get quicker, we're stressing the tyres more and more, so it will be difficult everywhere we go. But, yeah, definitely it was... You know, it's been a long time since we've seen people genuinely trying to qualify on mediums instead of softs. So I think we'll see a bit more of a true reflection in the races to come.," Piastri said.