Oscar Piastri believes that the difficult conditions encountered during the British Grand Prix highlighted some of McLaren’s weaknesses, very sensitive to weather variations.
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The British team had a complicated weekend at Silverstone, where temperature variations and strong gusts of wind notably disturbed the behavior of its car.
According to Piastri, these conditions prevented McLaren from hiding the problems it has faced since the start of the season: “I think the conditions at Silverstone clearly highlighted our weaknesses,” admits the Australian.
The Silverstone verdict
When conditions remain stable and the grip level is high, McLaren manages to better exploit the qualities of its car and get closer to the leading teams: “When grip is good and conditions are consistent, we can fight at the front or at least get close. When everything is stable, we seem competitive and manage to hide some of our problems.”
The situation was very different at Silverstone. The particularly changing conditions exposed the limits of the car, especially during qualifying: “The conditions were very difficult and, in these circumstances, there is nowhere to hide. So it was not a huge surprise to see us struggling and so far off the pace.”
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Piastri assures that McLaren has now identified several areas where it needs to improve. The main challenge is to make the car more efficient when conditions move away from its ideal operating window: “We have identified some specific areas we want to work on, but for now, we clearly seem to struggle when conditions become a bit more complicated.”
Beware of Belgian weather
The McLaren driver points out that these problems did not only appear at Silverstone. Similar difficulties had already been observed during the Canadian and Monaco Grands Prix. On these circuits, McLaren notably had problems placing the tires in their optimal operating window.
“We saw it in Canada and Monaco when tire temperatures were difficult to manage. We also suffered when the wind was strong. Generally speaking, we struggle as soon as conditions slightly move out of our comfort zone.”
These weaknesses could represent a significant challenge for McLaren in the upcoming races. The Belgian Grand Prix, held at Spa-Francorchamps, is notably known for its particularly changing weather conditions. For Piastri and his team, the goal will therefore be to make the car more versatile in order to remain competitive regardless of the conditions encountered on track.
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