Oscar Piastri admits McLaren ‘pretty representative’ in China as grip deficit exposed

Oscar Piastri admitted that where McLaren finds itself in the pecking order at the Chinese Grand Prix, is “pretty representative” of where the papaya team is at.

Piastri lines-up fifth for the Chinese GP, ahead of teammate Lando Norris on an all-McLaren third row. The Melbourne native played down the prospect of being able to challenge Ferrari on Grand Prix Sunday in Shanghai.

Oscar Piastri says McLaren grip deficit leaves team off Ferrari pace

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The season-opening Australian Grand Prix featured Mercedes and Ferrari as the teams to beat. That trend has continued into China.

Norris, in the sole McLaren MCL40 to finish, crossed the line a distant P5 in Australia, and once more, McLaren looks like the comfortable P3 team at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Norris finished P4 in the China Sprint, ahead of the recovering Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes, while Piastri was sixth.

For the Grand Prix, Piastri qualified P5, and Norris P6. The gap to Ferrari was only a tenth for Piastri, but he was almost half a second off Antonelli’s pole time.

“My last lap, I had a pretty big moment out of Turn 1,” Piastri revealed after qualifying.

“I think if you put my best sectors together, then it’s probably in the mix with the Ferraris, but with optimising the power unit, with how tricky the tyres are in these conditions, the wind, I’m pretty sure everyone’s got a similar story.

“So I think where we’ve ended up is pretty representative, and hopefully we’ve improved a little bit for the race tomorrow, compared to the Sprint.”

He added: “I think compared to Melbourne, I think Melbourne, we should have been quite a lot closer than we were in qualifying. The race, obviously, I’ll never know.

“But I think the picture for Lando is pretty representative, and I think what we’ve seen this weekend is also pretty representative.

“We’ve got a little bit closer, but we’re still half a second off, so it’s not like where we’re even really in the mix at the moment.

“So we’ve got some some grip to find, I think. That seems to be the biggest thing.

“I think we’ve gotten more on top of the things we want from the power unit, how to implement them, and just doing a better job on that side. But unfortunately, you can’t make up the grip you don’t have.”

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That being said, Norris was within two seconds of Hamilton come the chequered flag in the 100km Sprint.

Therefore, Piastri was asked whether he believes that McLaren can match Ferrari on Sunday in race trim.

“I would be a bit surprised if we can match them,” he admitted. “Hopefully we’ve improved things from the Sprint. But, certainly with Antonelli, I think he had pretty much everything that could go wrong go wrong in that race, and he still finished ahead of me.

“So, I think especially on a track like this, if you don’t have the car speeds, you don’t make up the time.”

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