Piastri apologises to McLaren after Dutch GP: 'Not good enough'
F1 News
Lando Norris took the headlines in Zandvoort, cruising to a 22-second victory over Max Verstappen. However, his teammate Oscar Piastri, whilst finishing fourth on Sunday, has admitted he apologised to the team over his performance during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend.
Speaking to media including GPblog after Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri was asked why he felt the need to apologise to his team despite being just two seconds off the podium, and the young Australian replied with "Just not being consistently good enough."
Piastri went further to explain; "There were definitely moments of the weekend where I felt very strong and very comfortable. I felt like Friday was pretty strong, especially over one lap. Even qualifying was looking very strong. I didn't find enough on the last lap of qualifying and then that made life a bit painful and then accompanied by a bad start today. It really kind of set the tone for the afternoon. When your teammate wins by 20 seconds, clearly there are things to work on and improve. So I'll try and make sure that I'm back in the game next week."
Despite feeling he should have been closer to Norris at Zandvoort, Piastri did admit there were positives to take from the weekend. "Clearly the car is very quick," the 23-year-old said; "And I think even for myself in clean air I felt pretty strong. I think ultimately this weekend, I don't think I was quite at Lando's level, so there are definitely some things to work on there. Being stuck behind traffic made my afternoon and my weekend look a bit more painful than it was in terms of pace. So it's only a good thing that the car is that quick. I just need to make sure that I'm joining in on the fun."
F1 will return to Italy this weekend for the Italian Grand Prix. McLaren currently sits 30 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors standings, whilst Piastri sits fourth in the drivers standings, 116 points behind Verstappen at the top, and 46 behind his teammate Norris.
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