Oscar Piastri believes Mercedes will be beatable this season, though acknowledged McLaren has “a pretty big gap to fill” to catch up.

Piastri swept into the lead at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix, and had been able to hold off George Russell before the mid-race Safety Car period, in which Kimi Antonelli was able to stop cheaply and maintain the lead.

Oscar Piastri says Mercedes still beatable after Suzuka gap

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Upon resumption of the race, Piastri climbed back up into second but was unable to keep tabs on Antonelli in clean air, the teenager finishing with a 15-second gap to the McLaren driver come the chequered flag.

With McLaren having made significant mid-season gains in recent years, Piastri joked he hopes for 2023-spec upgrades to be placed on the MCL40 to fight at the front.

In his first racing laps of the season, however, the Australian proved competitive in earning his and McLaren’s first podium finish of the year.

Asked if Mercedes would be beatable, Piastri said that while the team has catching up to do, it is not an impossible feat.

“I think we know from last year, that even when you have the best car you still need to operate it at an incredibly high level, and I think on our side we did a really good job of that,” Piastri explained after the Japanese Grand Prix.

“But I think it’s interesting to see when someone else has the fastest car that it’s not that straightforward. I think the fact that I could keep George behind for so long was really encouraging, but we’re under no illusion.

“We did everything right this weekend and we still got beaten by 15 seconds, so we’ve got a pretty big gap to fill.

“I’m confident that we can get there, but yes, we’ve still got some work to do.”

Having already pitted, Antonelli was one of the beneficiaries of the Safety Car at Suzuka, brought out after a high-speed crash for Haas driver Oliver Bearman.

Having also proven a match for Russell in Mercedes machinery early on, reporting over team radio he would feel able to challenge for the win with track position, that is not how Piastri’s race ended up finishing.

Without that intervention, whether or not a race win was on the cards is an unknown.

“I would have loved to have seen how it would have panned out,” Piastri added.

“I think I need to look back and see whether Kimi was quicker than George or similar pace.

“I think if he was the same pace as George then it would have been a pretty stressful afternoon because I probably would have had both of them right on my gearbox.

“But yeah, I mean, once Kimi had clean air, clearly, he was a lot faster than me. So, I’m not sure we would have won the race, but I certainly would have loved to have found out.”

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