Formula One: Oscar Piastri ‘shaking off rust’, confident grid position will improve by end of season

Oscar Piastri is confident of a McLaren return to ‘the front of the grid’ by season’s end, but improvement is unlikely for his maiden hometown Grand Prix.

Picture: Getty Images

Australian young gun Oscar Piastri is confident McLaren’s forthcoming upgrades can help move the team “closer to the front of the grid” as the squad promised to deliver him a top-four car by the end of the season.

Speaking ahead of his Australian Grand Prix debut, Piastri admitted he was still shaking off his “rust” behind the wheel after sitting out last season as Alpine’s reserve driver but was hoping to continue his development curve in his first race in Melbourne.

McLaren has endured its worst start to a Formula One season since 2019 and sits at the foot of the constructors’ standings with zero points from the opening two races.

Oscar Piastri is hoping upgrades can take him closer to the front of the grid. Picture: AFP

Piastri retired with technical problems in the opening race in Bahrain and his prospects in Saudi Arabia were crushed by first-lap contact after starting from eighth.

McLaren has promised a significant upgrade package for the next race in Baku, which team management have described as the “first step” in its goal to be a “top-four” car by the end of the season.

The highly-rated Piastri was optimistic the upgrades would help deliver him a more competitive car, but he acknowledged the rest of the field would also be making gains.

“I think it will definitely help us to move closer to the front of the grid,” Piastri said.

“I’m sure all the other teams have got upgrades of their own as well and I think what we have got coming in Baku is a good step in what is a bigger plan throughout the rest of the season.

“So, it will help a bit, definitely, and get us on the right track, I hope.

“But we are not underestimating that everyone else will probably have new parts as well, so we will see how much competitiveness we gain from that.”

McLaren team mechanics work on putting Oscar Piastri race car together. Picture: David Caird

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McLaren is targeting a three-stage approach to rejoining the Formula One elite by season’s end off the back of a radical organisational restructure under team principal Andrea Stella.

Stella revealed key upgrades would be rolled out in Baku as well as either side of the mid-season shutdown, which he expected would add “a few tenths of a second” at each stage to the struggling papaya.

“The improvement of car performance should start in Baku,” Stella said.

“The improvement in Baku should affect an area of the car that has been clear, I think, from the presentation of the car, we weren’t entirely happy with in terms of development.

“It’s just the first step. We would expect definitely another major upgrade which will interest more areas of the car, it will be much more apparent … and then we expect to have a further round of upgrades in the second part of the season, after the shutdown.

“So we have three main steps: Baku, later on – I don’t want to commit to any date, but before the shutdown – and after the shutdown.

“We hope that each of them will be able to provide a few tenths of a second so that we put ourselves in a more realistic position to meet our ambition to become a top-four car towards the end of the season.”

After 12 months out of racing following his back-to-back F3 and F2 championship wins, Piastri said he had benefited from getting a full race distance under his belt in Saudi Arabia.

But he was keeping his expectations for his first race in Australia in check.

“It was nice to get a race distance under my belt and definitely some learning and getting rid of some of the rust still,” Piastri said.

Oscar Piastri greeting fans at the Australian Grand Prix. Picture: David Caird

“The neck was a little bit sore at the end because Jeddah is pretty tough, but … I think with more laps I will get more and more used to it as well.

“Obviously Bahrain I only had a few laps to get rid of it (the rust) and I think every lap in the car I am getting more and more used to it again. Every race I start, every first lap I do, (it all) comes back. I’m sure it’s going away but I still need some more experience.

“Saudi we showed that we can get into Q3 and fight for the back end of points on our good days, so hopefully we can have a cleaner race and my front wing doesn’t wipe out (teammate) Lando (Norris) this time. We’ll see what we can do.”

McLaren’s new state of the art wind tunnel is expected to come online in June as part of a swath of infrastructure changes that chief executive Zak Brown said would help power the team back toward the front of the grid.

“No one doubts our commitment to getting back to the front,” Brown said.

“Finally, a lot of the infrastructure that we’ve been speaking about for years (is nearing completion).

“We have the resources we need, we’ve got two great racing drivers, a great history in the sport and a ton of enthusiasm and excitement.

“The start of the season, we’re two races in, it’s not nearly as bad as it looks – (but) it’s clearly not as good as it needs to be.

“(It is) certainly not the start of the year we’d hoped for, but not anywhere near as dramatic as some people might think.

“Now that Andrea has put the model in place we’re not done turbocharging that model. We’re just getting started.”