Oscar Piastri has once again expressed his disappointment with the capabilities of his McLaren as the Australian was at the centre of two big incidents during the United States Grand Prix.
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli edged one step closer to a maiden world title with victory from pole at the Circuit of the Americas, while Piastri started in seventh and languished to a seventh place finish.
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Seven is the 25-year-old’s number this season as it is also where he sits on the driver’s standings, one spot behind teammate Lando Norris.
“It was very tough for sure. We were able to keep (George) Russell behind at least, which was good, but it was pretty challenging just to get lap time out of the car, which has been the same all weekend,” Piastri said.
“I think as a team we’ve both struggled to a pretty big extent, but definitely for me the pace has been pretty bad, so plenty to try and understand. We’ll see what we can do better.”
McLaren duo Piastri and Norris’ relationship was once again in the spotlight in Texas.
The Australian started ahead of the Brit on the fourth row after the reigning world champion had a lap time deleted in qualifying, but on the eighth lap Norris complained of being “held up” by his teammate.
That came after Norris ruined the team’s sprint race in Singapore a fortnight ago by taking out his teammate on the final lap.
Norris admitted earlier this week that he received “plenty of telling-offs” by McLaren bosses following the collision.
He then addressed the incident in a pre-recorded interview with Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle that aired before Monday morning’s race.
“I can easily go into debate about it,” Norris said.
“The problem is it was my teammate and that should never have happened.
“The move, not even a question, it was easily a move. The gap was huge.
“It got to a point where I knew the gap was going to close fairly quickly and then when you try and back out, you can look like the more guilty party.
“I shouldn’t have done what I’d done on my teammate. The racer in me was like what I did was completely fine.
“But the person, and the heart, I have for McLaren, knew what I did was completely wrong and incorrect.”
Norris slummed for smug response | 01:40
Despite any bad blood that may have emerged from the incident, Piastri let his teammate past to follow team orders.
Norris went on to finish two places ahead of Piastri.
He got to second behind Antonelli with less than ten laps to go, but fell away as Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton all zoomed past.
It was clear that the McLarens could not go with their rivals – as a result Red Bull drew level on points with McLaren in the constructors championship, behind Mercedes and Ferrari.
Only George Russell finished behind Piastri from the other three strongest teams, and after saying his car was “incredibly difficult to drive” after qualifying, Piastri said nothing changed on race day.
“The car felt more or less the same as it did all weekend,” he said.
The Australian called the weekend “tricky” and when asked to elaborate on that, he replied: “The car is just very, very difficult to extract the performance from. I think if you can do it, it’s reasonably quick, but trying to do it is, as I said yesterday, very, very tough.”
The one positive Piastri called out was taking some points from title leaders Mercedes – particularly after an incident with Russell on the opening lap that resulted in the Englishman copping a five-second penalty.
The two cars made contact and smoke came off the tyres.
“Piastri’s on the outside of the track, he notices Russell is locked up and switches back to appear on the inside,” Sky Sports’ Anthony Davidson explained.
“So, before the corner, he’s not really threatening Russell at all. He’s clearly behind. It’s not like they’re neck-and-neck fighting into this corner.
“He switches back because he notices the Mercedes running wide, and then draws alongside.
“And yes, he still would have been in a similar position if Russell had slowed it down enough to be on the white line.
“But going off track and gaining a lasting advantage, I was struggling to figure out in my head why you’d get a five-second penalty for that.
“But I do understand it more for what happens (at the next corner).
“That contact pushes the car off circuit.”
Despite faring better than Piastri, Norris shared similar concerns about his car.
“The thing is I’m having to push way beyond what I would do in an ideal scenario,” Norris said.
“I gave myself the best opportunity for a good result, like a great result, today, which was hoping for a VSC or a safety car, or whatever it was.
“We gave ourself the best shot. By the end of the race, it didn’t look like it because I paid the price of trying to get the best result. Especially in that middle part of the race, but P5 was the best I could achieve today, so I’m happy.”
“We still aren’t quick enough,” Norris added. “And not quick enough to do anything surprising, or really be able to come through. I feel like the pace was, after the first ten laps was where I was at the end of the race, so yeah, we need a little bit more.”
After watching both McLaren drivers’ interviews, Sky Sports’ Anthony Davidson spelled out exactly why the team in papaya team struggled at a track where Piastri has always found the going tough.
“It doesn’t seem that long ago though since Madring where realistically, Norris should have blitzed it,” Davidson said.
“He should have absolutely dominated the race without the unlucky VSC for him. So, I think the car just suits high grip surfaces, which this isn’t.
“It suits smooth tracks as well, which this isn’t, and it doesn’t suit, as you heard from Lando, slow speed corners.
“So, maybe they’ll wait ‘til Qatar until the car can be back into the zone where it feels like it’s in its happy place.”