Oscar Piastri does not share the idea that Ferrari has the best starts on the grid. For the McLaren driver, his team is doing even better this season.
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Oscar Piastri confirmed Friday evening that McLaren remains fully in the fight at the Canadian Grand Prix, even though Mercedes seems to have gained a slight advantage after the sprint qualifying.
The Australian driver will start from fourth position on the sprint grid in Montreal, just behind his teammate Lando Norris. However, the gap with George Russell, who took pole, exceeds three tenths, proof that Mercedes has clearly taken a step forward this weekend.
Despite this, McLaren and Ferrari appear extremely close in performance on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit. Norris finished third ahead of the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, in a particularly tight hierarchy.
“The car seemed pretty good, Piastri explained after the session. The day was a bit messy for everyone, but Mercedes still seems very strong.”
Mercedes impresses despite its difficulties at the start
While Mercedes currently dominates over one lap, the German team continues to suffer in one specific area since the start of the season: standing starts.
With the arrival of new power units in 2026 and the disappearance of the MGU-H, teams have to deal with a significant turbo lag phenomenon, making takeoffs much more difficult to manage.
Since the Chinese Grand Prix, the FIA has even had to adjust certain procedures to limit the particularly slow starts observed at the beginning of the season.
In this context, Ferrari has built a solid reputation thanks to often very effective launches when the lights go out. However, Piastri does not fully share this analysis.
The McLaren driver believes his team has been even more effective in this exercise since the start of the championship.
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“Our starts have been better than Ferrari’s all year, the Australian confidently stated. We trust our ability to get off the line well.”
McLaren wants to continue exploiting this advantage
McLaren’s excellent starts have already played a key role this season. In Japan notably, Piastri managed to gain the advantage from the very first meters thanks to a particularly effective launch.
Facing Mercedes, which is still inconsistent in this area, McLaren knows it has an important opportunity to gain positions right from the start of the sprint and the main Grand Prix.
Piastri remains cautious, aware that Mercedes is actively working to fix this weak point.
“I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before Mercedes becomes competitive on starts as well, the McLaren driver admitted. In the meantime, we will try to make the most of it.”
Important developments already encouraging
The Canadian weekend also marks an important step in McLaren’s development. The Woking team introduced the second phase of its first major upgrade package of the season, with already encouraging results despite some hesitations during free practice.
Even though Piastri acknowledges that Mercedes seems to have better exploited its own novelties so far, the Australian remains convinced that McLaren still has a good margin for progress.
“We will try to optimize some things a bit better and come back stronger tomorrow” concluded the championship leader.
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